Italian football fans will be able to watch Spain’s La Liga on free-to-air television for the remainder of the current season after the rights were acquired by a pool of regional broadcasters which together cover the whole of the country.
The rights cover the last 10 rounds of the Liga, the top division of football in Spain. The league has been untelevised this season in Italy after its international rights distributor, the Mediapro agency, failed to agree a deal with incumbent local rights-holder, the pay-television platform Sky Italia.
The rights were acquired by the Italian advertising agency Publishare for just over €1 million ($1.3 million), according to La Gazzetta dello Sport. The agency then agreed a deal with the pool of broadcasters.
Publishare acquired the rights from the Pitch International agency. Pitch this month acquired the rights for the league in Italy for the rest of this season and the next two seasons, 2013-14 and 2014-15.
The broadcasters, and the regions they cover, are as follows:
Primocanale – Liguria
RTTR – Trentino Alto Adige
Free – Friuli Venezia Giulia
Telecupole and Videogruppo – Piedmont/Valle d’Aosta
Telelombardia – Lombardy
Antenna 3 NordEst and Telenuovo – Veneto
Telereggio, Trc Telemodena, Nuovarete San Marino and DI.TV – Emilia Romagna
RTV 38 – Tuscany
TV Centro Marche – Marche
Umbria TV – Umbria
Rete 8 – Abruzzo
T9 TV and Teleroma 56 – Lazio, Molise and Basilicata
Telenorba – Puglia
Telecapri – Campania
Videocalabria – Calabria
Antenna Sicilia – Sicilia
Telecostasmeralda – Sardinia