IMG deal doubles Serie A's income from international rights
By Associated Press | Published: 11th October 2017 04:32 PM |
Last Updated: 11th October 2017 04:32 PM | A+A A- |
Juventus's Gonzalo Higuain celebrates after scoring a goal during the Italian Serie A Soccer match between Juventus and Chievo at the Allianz Stadium in Turin, Italy. | AP
MILAN: Italy's soccer league has made a switch and assigned its international TV rights predominantly to IMG for 371 million euros ($437 million) per season — nearly double the value of the previous deal.
The agreement covers the next three Serie A seasons through 2020-21.
The previous deal was for 190 million euros ($224 million) per season with MP and Silva.
According to the Gazzetta dello Sport, the new figure places Serie A third in Europe for international rights after the English Premier League (1.3 billion euros; $1.5 billion) and the Spanish league (636 million euros; $750 million), and firmly ahead of the German Bundesliga (240 million euros; $282 million).
IMG will pay 352 million euros ($415 million) for global rights and a betting package, Rai International will provide 4 million euros (nearly $5 million) for Italian language rights abroad, and the remaining funds will be covered by signal providers and league promotions.
"The awareness of the Italian league's potential is growing," said Luigi De Siervo, the CEO of Serie A advisor Infront. "The clubs have chosen a partner that convinced everyone, not just for the economic terms but above all for the development plan."
While the 18 clubs present for the vote Tuesday selected IMG unanimously, Aurelio De Laurentiis left the room angrily beforehand, with the president of Serie A leader Napoli calling the offers "mortifying."
Serie A still makes most of its money from domestic TV rights deals with Sky and Mediaset.
