ESPN acquires Coppa Italia and Supercoppa rights in the US

Pay-television broadcaster ESPN has enhanced its coverage of Italian football in the US by acquiring rights to the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana.

The Calcio e finanza website reported that Lega Serie A has sold rights in the country directly to ESPN. The duration of the deal has not been announced but is likely to be for three seasons, from 2018-19 to 2020-21.

ESPN recently acquired Italian Serie A rights, in the same three-season cycle, from the IMG agency as part of a package deal that included the English FA Cup, Dutch Eredivisie and Chinese Super League.

Last week, Burke Magnus, executive vice-president of programming at ESPN, told TV Sports Markets: “We put a bullseye on soccer as a sport. It was something that we could get a critical mass of content for ESPN+, and the design here is to make the service indispensable to soccer fans in the US.”