Serie A on Thursday accepted an offer from conglomerate Abu Dhabi Media to broadcast the Italian league in the Middle East and North Africa for the next three seasons, after more than a year without a broadcaster in the region.
In the absence of a satisfactory offer in its tender announcement last year, the Italian league developed its own YouTube channel in Arabic to offer free games last season; five a day for the first part of the season, then all ten matches. from February.
Abu Dhabi Media, an Emirati public organization, has been awarded a minimum of $79 million (€75 million) for the next three seasons, the Italian league announced.
To this guaranteed minimum revenue can be added any additional revenue related to the number of subscribers Italian football generates on the platform, a league spokesperson told AFP.
A bid for a new three-year cycle in this region was deemed unsuccessful last year, penalized in particular by the lack of a new offer from then-rights holder beIN sport.
beIN has criticized Serie A for its collaboration with Saudi Arabia, particularly for the Italian Super Cup. However, the Qatari group was at loggerheads with the Saudi state, which it accused of being behind the sports image piracy system behind BeoutQ. In June 2020, beIN temporarily stopped broadcasting the Italian championship due to this conflict.
According to specialist website Calcio e Finanza, beIN Sports paid around 112 million euros per season for these rights, which is almost 4.5 times what a new broadcaster would pay.
Source: Le Figaro
