Rai will struggle to retain rights to Italy national football team matches due to the spiralling rights fee, according to Michele Anzaldi, secretary of the supervisory committee at the Italian state broadcaster.
Italian newspaper La Repubblica said that Rai only has a budget for about half of the €200m ($268m) price tag that has been put on the European Qualifiers rights package by the CAA Eleven agency for four years, from 2014-15 to 2017-18.
Anzaldi said that paying such a rights fee would be “absurd… as it does not take into account the new trends in the advertising market.”
He added: “On the other hand, it is inconceivable that our national team football matches would not be available mostly on state television from now on. Over the past 60 years, Italians have come together in front of the television to watch their team’s games on national channels, and it would be unfortunate if the public-service broadcaster were cut off from the negotiations for economic reasons. The government is working to ensure that Rai should not be deprived of one of the main drivers of society and nationality.”