Sky Italia has acquired rights for the Uefa Europa League European football club competition after it was confirmed yesterday (Monday) evening that the pay-television broadcaster had been dislodged by commercial broadcaster Mediaset as the rights-holder for the Uefa Champions League club tournament.
Sky Italia’s exclusive deal will run for three years, from 2015-16 to 2017-18.
The Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper said that the rights fee would be similar to the previous cycle. The deal covers all media platforms.
In the three-year cycle, from 2012-13 to 2014-15, Sky was the pay-television rights-holder for the Champions League, with Mediaset having rights for the Europa League and one free-to-air Champions League game per week. The two broadcasters agreed a deal for Mediaset to show Champions League games involving Italian teams on its Mediaset Premium pay-TV platform, with Sky able to show games involving Italian teams from the secondary club competition.
Yesterday evening Mediaset confirmed that it had won the rights for the Champions League. According to Gazzetta, Mediaset agreed to pay about €700m ($945m) for the rights to the tournament over three years, from 2015-16 to 2017-18 – about €70m more per year than Sky’s deal. The broadcaster will exploit the rights on its pay-television platform Mediaset Premium.