Lega Serie A, the organising body of the top division of Italian club football, has opted to postpone approval of a sales process for its next set of domestic broadcast rights, according to the Reuters news agency.
The Lega held meetings yesterday (Monday) where governance and broadcast rights were on the agenda. After the meetings, Lega extraordinary commissioner Carlo Tavecchio said: “During the assembly today, we have presented the project of the Lega channel, which we liked, and the topic of the call to offer for audiovisual rights on the national territory, which deserves further insight, has been discussed.”
Reuters, citing sources familiar with the talks, said the league is now set to devise a plan for a tender in the week commencing December 18.
It has been forced to draw up a new rights auction after Italian media group Mediaset refused to participate in the last tender and the only bidders tabled offers that did not meet expectations.
Mediaset refused to participate in protest after filing a complaint to Italy’s antitrust authority, the AGCM, over the structure of the sales process, which the broadcaster claimed favoured pay-television rival Sky.
The IMG agency and state broadcaster Rai last month emerged triumphant in the international media rights sales process run by Lega Serie A, sealing agreements worth a total of €1.113bn ($1.289bn).
IMG secured global rights to Serie A, while Rai landed the Italian Communities package, across the three seasons spanning 2018-19 to 2020-21. Rai’s contract is for a dedicated Italian-language package specifically intended to serve expatriate Italian communities. Lega Serie A said the deals will be worth €371m per season in total.