April 18 – The broadcast rights sales process for Italy’s Serie A for the 2018-21 season has again been stalled after Sky Italia went to court in Milan requesting verification of whether Spanish rights broker Mediapro’s tender conformed to Italian law.
“The tender by Mediapro… raises so many perplexities, making it necessary to verify its legality before presenting any important offers,” Sky Italia said in a statement.
Mediapro acquired the broadcast sales rights for Serie A in February for €1.05 billion, a minimum guarantee set by Serie A’s advisors Infront.
Infront had been in negotiation with Sky but those talks had broken down over the €1.05 billion figure, opening the door to Mediapro.
The effect of the court request by Sky is to suspend the tender process until May 4. Initially broadcaster were given a deadline of April 21 to submit offers.
Domestic TV broadcasting rights for the 2015 to 2018 rights cycle in Italy reached €945 million per season. Last November Serie A also attracted the services of IMG for the sales of its international TV rights replacing Silva & MP as agency. The three-year deal is reported to be worth €371 million per season.
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