Lega Serie A, the top Italian football league, has sold its package of free-to-air highlights comprising afternoon comment-based programming and the first viewing of goals round-ups in early evenings on weekends to Cielo, the free-to-air channel operated by Sky Italia.
The rights, which also cover live match updates and post-match interviews, cover three seasons, from 2012-13 to 2014-15.
Cielo will show goals round-ups from 6pm to 6.15pm.
The deal means that Italian public-service broadcaster Rai’s flagship evening programme ‘Novantesimo Minuto’ will no longer be the first to offer free-to-air highlights after Serie A’s afternoon live games conclude. Rai also purchased rights for the Sunday late-night round-up show ‘Domenica Sportiva’.
“Considering the economic crisis that we are going through, I’m happy that Rai has acquired a package… that allows us to start showing Novantesimo Minuto at 6.15pm,” Rai Sport director Eugenio De Paoli said. “We saved our historical Novantesimo Minuto programme and Domenica Sportiva… As a public service, we cannot waste money. I believe that our viewers will still be satisfied with the service we are offering.”
De Paoli added that although Cielo would be able to show goals “a few minutes earlier… the delay [for Rai] will be minimal.”