Brazilian commercial broadcaster Bandeirantes has acquired the rights to the Italian Serie A in a one-season deal to cover the forthcoming 2020-21 season.
The broadcaster will exploit the rights on its free-to-air Band linear television channel, airing one match per match week on its free-to-air channel. Additional matches will also be shown on the BandSports pay-television channel, although the specifics of this are unclear at this time.
The announcement that Band has secured the Serie A rights comes after it was reported late last week that the broadcaster was close to a deal. The commercial broadcaster was understood to be among a small number of parties bidding for the rights.
The rights were previously held by OTT subscription platform DAZN, which cancelled its deal one year early. DAZN had agreed a three-season deal to cover the 2018-19 to 2020-21 seasons as part of its Brazil launch.
Band’s contract, similar to DAZN’s, was agreed with the IMG agency.
The IMG agency holds the league’s international rights as part of its initial €380m- ($454m-) per-season deal which includes international broadcast rights, club archive rights, betting rights, a marketing spend and fee for access to the broadcast signal.
Band, which recently added the Russian Premier League rights to its portfolio, has not aired the Serie A since the 2007-08 season, when Brazilian interest was driven by AC Milan’s Brazilian star Kaká.
Meanwhile, the Spanish LaLiga has yet to finalise a new rights deal in Brazil with the new season to begin on Friday.
Sources told SportBusiness that the territory is a key market for LaLiga and that negotiations are being handled by top executives at the Mediapro agency, which distributes rights to LaLiga internationally.
The Brazilian rights were previously held by global sports broadcaster ESPN in a five-season deal covering the 2015-16 to 2019-20 cycle.