Serie A TV Saga Comes to An End

DAZN has officially secured Italian broadcasting rights to Serie A, the country’s top-flight soccer competition. The league’s rights were previously shared by DAZN and Sky, a unit of Comcast.

Serie A was targeting $1.17 billion per season for the rights but landed on a three-year, $2.95 billion deal. DAZN will have exclusive rights for seven out of 10 fixtures per match day.

The deal is smaller than the league’s current contract, which seems to be a commonality across soccer leagues — Bundesliga saw a 5% decrease in its latest broadcasting deal, as well.

Nine of the league’s 20 clubs had previously held out on approving the deal, citing concerns about abandoning a subscription base Sky had built since it began airing Serie A in 2003. DAZN’s bid was set to expire Monday, but 16 of the 20 teams accepted the offer on Friday.

• DAZN is shifting to a Europe-focused strategy. Prior to the new Serie A deal, it cut its contract with the MLB, backed out of its streaming the UEFA Champions League in Asia, and pulled Serie A from its Brazil platform.
• The streaming service also won Bundesliga rights last year.
• Comcast, whose $2.65 billion offer was outbid, is starting to scale back spending on sports rights.

CBS recently secured the league’s U.S. broadcast rights in a three-year deal worth $225 million. Sky is set to enter talks over non-exclusive rights packages, per Reuters.