Before going to market, the league must submit guidelines for the rights sale to the country’s antitrust authority and communications authority. This would make May the earliest possible start date for an auction, though June or July seem more likely.
The league is said to be looking for an increase of at least 10 per cent on its current media-rights income. However, it will have to do so with one fewer player in the country’s pay-television market, following the closure in February of digital-terrestrial platform Dahlia. The league had brought in about €960 million ($1.35 billion) per season in its current two-year deal, covering the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons, but the final amount earned will be much less. Dahlia had paid only a small proportion of its fee of €31.5 million per season.
Among the questions facing the league are the duration of the new contract and the packaging of the rights. The league has four years to run on its six-year media-rights advisory deal with Infront Sports & Media. Having done one two-year deal, it now has to decide whether to do two further two-year deals or to sell the rights this time for a longer period, either three or four years. The league must also decide whether to follow Uefa and sell its rights on a platform-neutral basis, to generate head-to-head competition between the two main pay-television platforms, Sky Italia and Mediaset Premium. Uefa enjoyed a 70-per-cent increase in the value of its Champions League rights with such an approach.