Lega Serie A, the organising body of the top division of Italian club football, has today (Monday) accepted an offer for its domestic broadcast rights from the Mediapro agency.
The Lega confirmed the news in a brief statement issued following a meeting this morning. The Lega said the Spanish agency has made an offer worth €1,050,001,000 ($1.28bn) per season, exceeding the minimum revenue target of €1.05bn ($1.26bn) that had been set.
The Lega will now take the offer, for the three seasons spanning 2018-19 to 2020-21, to the Italian antitrust authority before it can proceed with officially assigning the rights.
Today’s announcement came after the Lega last month said it would enter into private negotiations over its media rights with Mediapro after talks with broadcasters failed to result in an agreement satisfying its goals for its next domestic contract.
Lega Serie A earlier entered into private negotiations with bidders for its domestic broadcast rights after offers opened on January 22 failed to meet the minimum revenue target of €1.05bn per season.
The Lega opened initial offers after issuing the tender documents for its next set of domestic broadcast rights earlier in January. Two separate documents had been issued for the rights – one for pay-television operators, digital terrestrial television platforms and internet outlets, along with a subordinate tender intended for independent financial intermediaries.
Bids were due by January 22 and the Lega confirmed at the time that it had received five offers from broadcasters and media companies, along with one from an independent intermediary. The Lega declined to accept any of the offers and entered into private talks with broadcasters and media companies in a bid to reach the €1.05bn mark. The total of the highest offers received for the packages was €760m, according to Lega extraordinary commissioner Carlo Tavecchio.
Mediapro was the only participant in the call to tender for independent intermediaries. The rights tender process is being managed by the Infront agency.