Spanish TV company Mediapro has lost the TV rights to Italian Serie A football following the league’s decision to cancel the contract awarded to the firm for €1.05 billion a year from 2018 to 2021.

With the decision, the football rights auction is now being relaunched with Sky and Mediaset battling for them. Sky is being tipped as the most likely candidate to acquire the rights for €950-€970 million a year.

Mediapro had won the rights in February to air a total of 400 football matches but a Milan court halted the operation on the grounds that it breached competition rules following an appeal from Sky Italia.

Mediapro tried to keep the rights by providing the required financial guarantees, but the football teams have refused them and canceled the contract with the company, thus triggering a major a setback in Mediapro’s expansion plans into other territories.

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