Sky Italia and Rai reach stalemate in Sochi 2014 talks

Negotiations between Italian pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia and state broadcaster Rai over a sublicensing deal for rights to the 2014 winter Olympic Games have broken down, according to Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

The report said that Sky, which acquired rights for the Sochi 2014 winter and Rio 2016 summer Olympics in October 2008, is seeking between €20m ($26m) and €30m for sublicensing 100 hours of coverage of Sochi 2014 to Rai.

However, the newspaper added that Rai had “no intention” of paying such a fee for the Sochi 2014 Games and had switched its attention to a possible deal for the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Sky, which has to guarantee free-to-air coverage of the Games, may now seek to transfer coverage of Sochi 2014 to its digital-terrestrial and satellite-television channel Cielo, the report said.