MILAN: Italy’s football league has awarded international TV rights for top-flight Serie A games for €557 million (Dh2.6 billion) for the next three seasons, almost 60 per cent more than the previous auction, according to two sources close to the matter.
MP & Silva, the sports rights company that has been managing and distributing Serie A rights outside Italy since 2004, won the bidding for the coming period running to 2018, beating rivals IMG and B4Capital, the sources said.
In a statement, MP & Silva confirmed it acquired the rights but did not give financial details.
MP & Silva co-founder Riccardo Silva said the loss of many star football players underscored how Italian football was losing ground to other leagues, adding that the trend including in 2014 for international viewers had not been encouraging and that he hoped this could change.
He said MP & Silvia will be able to make up for the higher costs of the rights by increasing the price of bundled packages it offers through its network to broadcasters around the world.
The income of some €186 million per year on average will be welcome for financially strapped Italian clubs, facing balance sheet problems and the grim state of the game, beset for years by match-fixing scandals and stadium violence.
Domestic rights to Serie A games were awarded to Rupert Murdoch’s pay-TV satellite broadcaster Sky Italia and Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset in a three-year deal worth €2.8 billion.
