The alarm is rising among the telecommunications operators in view of the approaching of the new course of Serie A which from next season will see Dazn as a pivot in partnership with Tim. The fears concern the resilience of the networks, but also competitive risks and the danger of having to deal with a wave of complaints. Apprehension circulates among the operators and there are those who have also moved on a formal level. As it turns out to Sole 24 Ore Wind Tre did so for example with a report sent to the Antitrust Authority (Agcm). However, that of Wind Tre would be the first of a series of reports that other operators would have in the pipeline.
The Serie A revolution in streaming
Certainly the transition that will await Serie A starting from 22 August is not a small one. The last auction for domestic audiovisual rights has delivered as a response an assignment that sees Dazn as the beneficiary of 7 games a week exclusively on all platforms and 3 in “co-exclusive” only on the web. The sharing of the three matches (the match on Saturday evening, the advance on Sunday at 12.30 and the postponement on Monday evening) will be with Sky, the loser of a competition in which it arrived with the ball and chain of the Antitrust decision which banned the Comcast subsidiary from having exclusive products on the IPTV channel until May 2022.
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The Dazn-Tim agreement
In short, the idea of the new season in which streaming football will be the master has made the operators raise their antennas. Also because the assignment to Dazn by Lega Serie A took place in the face of 840 million euros per season, with Tim who, as reconstructed, committed to giving a guaranteed minimum of 40% (340 million per year) in addition to support. technological. In this context, as specified by the CEO Tim, Luigi Gubitosi, during the conference call, «the agreement is covered by Nda, a confidentiality clause, but we can say that it is similar to that with Disney. So we are the only telco that can distribute subscriptions ». Anyway, added CEO Tim, “it is possible to buy the fiber from us and the subscription from Dazn.”
Fears about networks and call centers
There is therefore a theme of exclusivity, but in the reasons that operators put on those who go there there is also the concern for the increase in traffic peaks with congestion of the hubs that could create problems for the national Internet service. Hence the fear that the time of five months between the assignment of the rights to Dazn and the first day of the championship is not enough to adapt the infrastructures. In this context, the invitation to the Antitrust by Wind Tre, which has already formally moved, is above all to ensure that there are no particular technical or call center agreements between Dazn and Tim that would end up penalizing the other operators.
The alarm of the operators on the competitive risk
Another question: the strengthening of networks is inevitable. And the request is that Dazn agree on timing and methods. Network interventions need to be planned, it is reported, but also a backup plan valid until the completion of the network upgrade (with the proposal to open free digital terrestrial to Dazn customers in case of problems). The competitive issue is also frightening to operators. The Timvision app on smart TVs is another of the elements on which concerns are focused. Could it be a Trojan horse to snatch customers from the competition?