Serie A Begins Tender Process for Italian Media Rights Between 2015 – 2018

Italy’s top soccer league Serie A and its strategic media rights advisor Infront Sports & Media announced yesterday the tender process details for the Serie A media rights on Italian territory.

The tender, which expires on 5 June at 12.00pm, covers 380 matches in each of the 2015/16, 2016/17, and 2017/18 Serie A seasons. 

In summary, Infront has proposed four innovations in order to enhance competition and the possibility of access by new market players:

• An offering that not only includes exploitation rights through digital terrestrial or satellite platforms, but also primary rights for exploitation through online and other audio-visual platforms. This allows licensees to offer Serie A content through other channels;

• An offering structured “by matches”, covering a certain number of fixtures, but overall not more than 35 per cent of the championship;

• A dedicated offering for direct exploitation, containing live broadcast rights, reserved for licensees offering OTT (“over-the-top”) content via Internet, IPTV and mobile phones;

• An ancillary rights offering, designed to enrich editorial content and allow for differentiation of the core packages (e.g. exclusive feeds, priority in the pre- and post-match interviews, etc.).

The following exclusive domestic tender packages are available to media companies in Italy:

• Packages A and B include home and away matches of 8 selected teams (248 of 380 total matches) for transmission via satellite and digital terrestrial platforms respectively (plus related exploitation rights via Internet, IPTV and mobile phones);

• Package C is an upgrade of package A or B and includes ancillary rights related to live broadcast (e.g. different isolated feeds, (unilateral) camera positions, etc.);

• Package D includes 132 matches which are not included in packages A and B and are complemented by ancillary rights as indicated in package C (for exploitation through all platforms);

• Package E provides 3 matches for each match day, for a season total of 114 matches. These rights might only be offered as OTT content via Internet, IPTV and / or mobile platforms.

Marco Bogarelli, President of Infront Italy, said: “The innovations introduced for the 2015 to 2018 period ensures a system that stimulates competition, guarantees market players to further segment their offer and provides the final consumer with multiple ways to access the football product. This means that the new tools meet consumer demands, allowing fans to get closer to football in a new and more modern way. The ultimate goal is to maximise resources for the league, expanding the number of viewers and ultimately Lega Serie A fans.”

Maurizio Beretta, President of the Lega Serie A, stated: “We are very pleased with the result. On Friday, clubs unanimously gave the green light to the presentation of the packages, expressing satisfaction and approval for the work done. This is a significant arrival point, but is only the first step in the selling process. We are happy to have made a good and confident start for future engagements. We will bring to market new technologies to spread football more and more globally, with a particular attention to new generations.”