Legendary football competition ‘in danger of dying’ after crucial talks go horribly wrong
NAPOLI’S owner has declared that Serie A “will die” after a controversial new TV deal was agreed.
The Italian top-flight has announced that after months of negotiations they have agreed a package with DAZN and Sky to continue broadcasting their matches.
GettyNapoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis has slammed Serie A’s new TV deal[/caption]
The £779m-per-season agreement means that Serie A will remain on the two channels for the next five years.
A majority 17 out of the 20 top division teams voted for it after opting against creating their own Serie A channel.
That revolutionary idea would have meant cutting out broadcasters entirely and that the league could produce all of their own content.
But with the current TV deal expiring at the end of the campaign, it was felt that there was not enough time to get the infrastructure needed.
And that meant that they had to go with the low-ball joint-offer from DAZN and Sky that is worth £23m less than the current package.
Italy previously had the Melandri law that only allowed TV right contracts to be for three years at a time.
However, that has now been relaxed, which has enabled the five-year package.
The purpose of that was to try and ensure a higher value of domestic TV rights – but many feel that will see Premier League clubs have even more of a financial advantage over their Italian counterparts as their broadcast rights will rocket again when they come to be renegotiated in 2025.
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Additionally to the £779m per season offered by DAZN and Sky, the former have also got a revenue sharing part to the deal.
That will see Serie A and DAZN split revenue 50/50 on sustaining and growing the subscriber base should specified targets be met.
This move now looks very unlikely to help Italy’s big guns bridge the gap with their Prem, Spanish LaLiga and German Bundesliga rivals in revenue.
And it led to a furious outburst from Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis upon its announcement today.
He interrupted Serie A president Luigi De Siervo’s press conference by claiming: “Italian football will die.”
He then told the media in attendance: “It’s a defeat for Italian football, with this deal our football will die.
“Sky and DAZN are not competent, they aren’t good for Italian football.”
