Italian digital terrestrial television broadcaster Sportitalia has acquired the rights to Scottish Premiership football.
The rights will be exploited on Sportitalia’s recently launched channel SI Only Football and was brokered by the Infront agency which is distributing the international rights to the Scottish top flight until the end of the 2019-20 season.
The first match shown on SI Only Football will be Celtic’s match away at Hamilton Academical on Saturday, September 14.
The deal echoes Sportitalia’s previous rights acquisitions which has seen the broadcaster target lower-tier national league competition’s, including the rights to the Swedish, Danish and Australian leagues, as well as French, Danish and Scottish national cup competitions.
It also comes after the Scottish Professional Football League issued a request for proposals for international media rights. The SPFL has been seeking an agency to sell the rights from the start of the 2020-21 season for a host of its properties, including the Scottish Premiership, Scottish Championship and Scottish Challenge Cup among others.
Sportitalia launched four new channels on July 1, including; SI Only Football, Sportitalia HD, SI Motors (dedicated to motorsport) and SI Live 24 (round-the-clock sports news).