MILAN: Serie A clubs on Friday awarded DAZN the rights to screen Italy's top-flight football championship in the league's home market for the next three seasons, two sources said, in one of the largest deals for the streaming service in Europe.
DAZN, which entered the Italian market in 2018, offered some €2.5 billion for the rights to screen all Serie A matches in the 2021-2024 period, including exclusive rights for seven out of 10 games per matchday, sources had previously said.
DAZN beat a rival bid by US Comcast's unit SKY which had offered €2.25 billion to screen Serie A on its satellite and digital terrestrial TV platforms.
At a teleconference meeting, 16 out of 20 clubs backed DAZN's bid to buy the rights to broadcast all Serie A's matches, said the two sources, who are attending the meeting.
Serie A will hold talks until March 29 with Italy's top pay TV broadcaster SKY over non exclusive rights to screen three games per matchday, the same sources said.
Under the agreement in place, Serie A raised some €2.9 billion per season from the sale of domestic licences to SKY and DAZN, with SKY holding the lion's share of the rights.
Broadcasting rights are the main source of revenue for Serie A and are increasingly crucial as matches are played in empty stadiums due to COVID-19 restrictions and companies shrink sponsorship budgets.
But rampant inflation in the sector had already shown signs of peaking before the pandemic and has been further negatively affected by the novel coronavirus crisis.
The deal with Serie A is one of the largest ever secured by the sport streaming app in Europe with a major soccer league and marks a big advance on DAZN's current agreement with Serie A.
Under an accord expiring in June, DAZN offers its Italian customers three out of 10 Serie A games per matchday.
Owned by billionaire Len Blavatnik's Access Industries, DAZN sealed a technological and distribution agreement with Italy's former phone monopoly Telecom Italia (TIM) to give its Serie A bid a boost.
TIM would cover more than 40% of the annual payments due by DAZN to Serie A as it bets on soccer to promote its ultra-broadband services.
Serie A have been discussing bids for domestic rights licences for weeks, with some clubs expressing doubts over a deal with DAZN as they would prefer maintaining the league's long-term partnership with SKY.
A clash between Serie A clubs over a separate 1.7 billion euro deal to sell a 10% stake in a new company handling the league's media rights also contributed to the stalemate.
Serie A's decision to back DAZN's bid is a blow to the country's top pay-TV player SKY which built a reputation of broadcasting major soccer matches in Italy.
It also underscores challenges facing traditional pay-TV broadcasters which increased their popularity in the past year as people spent more time at home due to COVID-19 restrictions. – Reuters
