Serie A clubs have voted to accept an offer from DAZN and Sky to acquire the domestic broadcasting rights for the Italian top flight for the next five seasons.
Lega Serie A approved the bid on Monday, with 17 clubs voting in favour of accepting the offer that is reported to be worth €900m per year from the 2024/25 campaign through to the 2028/29 season.
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That is down from the previous deal which was worth €927.5m, but the vote will ensure that the current agreement will continue for another five years, with DAZN broadcasting all 10 Serie A fixtures each week in Italy, while three games will also be shown on Sky.
There had been support for a project that would see Serie A create their own streaming channel to broadcast league games and reports emerged of backing from Oaktree Capital Partners, but that has ultimately been turned away in favour of a continuation of the partnership with both DAZN and Sky.
Both Salernitana and Cagliari voted against the bid, while Napoli abstained, and it’s fair to say that Partenopei owner Aurelio De Laurentiis wasn’t impressed with the eventual outcome.
“It’s a loss for Italian football which will die with these offers,” he said, as per Football Italia.
“Sky and DAZN are not competent, they don’t do the good of Italian football. The value of our football must go through investments and fans are our absolute good.”
While the new deal solidifies the broadcasting situation domestically in Italy for Serie A viewers, the league’s next port of call will be the overseas market, including the UK and Ireland, with the current deal with BT Sport – now TNT Sports – concluding at the end of this season after a three-year deal was agreed in 2021.
