Advanced Television

Serie A relaunches rights tender after Mediaset bails

June 12, 2017

Serie A, Italy’s top-flight football league, is launching a new tender for the TV rights to matches for the 2018-2021 seasons after private broadcaster Mediaset made no bid in the original tender on June 10th.

“We don’t believe the offers received represent the real value of Italian soccer,” the Serie A president Carlo Tavecchio told reporters. “As a result, the assembly has unanimously voted to not assign the rights to any of the participants.”

Mediaset presented no offer for the first time ever, leaving Sky and Perform Group as the only major participants.

Earlier this month Mediaset lodged a complaint with Italy’s antitrust watchdog and communications regulator to try to change the conditions for the tender, which it said penalised it unfairly. “We reiterate that the terms for presenting offers are totally unacceptable,” it said in a statement.

Mediaset said that its decision not to bid for the three seasons from 2018-19 would not have any effect on the upcoming 2017-2018 season, for which it already holds the rights.

 

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