By Elvira Pollina and Giuseppe Fonte
MILAN (Reuters) – Italy’s parliament is considering giving Serie A an option to extend existing domestic broadcast deals beyond their natural expiry next year in a bid to shield the top flight soccer clubs from the risk of falling revenue at a regular auction process.
Sport streaming service DAZN and Comcast’s pay-TV operator Sky Italia have paid 2.52 billion euros and 263 million euros respectively to secure Serie A domestic broadcasting licenses for the 2021-22 to 2023-24 seasons.
That is a half of the amount England’s Premier League collects under its existing TV deals on its home market, according to UEFA data.
Under the proposed legislation, which Italy’s upper house will examine on Tuesday, Serie A clubs could renew their current contracts beyond June 2024, should a regular tender process fall short of giving clubs adequate economic returns.
If approved, the new rules would enable Serie A to seek an extension of existing TV deals “for the time needed without exceeding an overall duration of five years.”
According to the proposed rule, the extension of the deals could be explored “after carrying out a market test to assess whether any other player may offer better conditions.”
Home to storied soccer clubs such as Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan, Serie A plans to hold later this year its regular collective tender to sell the rights to screen its matches in Italy for seasons after June 2024.
Serie A clubs, whose finances are heavily reliant on TV rights revenue, might receive a lukewarm response from broadcasters at the media right sale process, club and league officials have warned.
That could pile up further pressure on team finances, and limit further their capability to compete at European level after the pandemic.
Serie A clubs representatives will meet on Tuesday to discuss plans for their media rights tender process.
The clubs are also expected to meet on Feb.24 to discuss a response to approaches from private equity investors and international banks which have expressed interest in buying into or providing financing to Serie A’s media business.
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina and Giuseppe Fonte, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
