ROME. Everyone at the Government table to solve the Dazn knot. The Ferragostano start of Serie A was red-hot by the protests of the users and by the controversy raised by various politicians for the “serious disservices” of the streaming platform that holds the exclusive rights of the championship. A Sunday match between some difficulties, crashed in the evening due to the two postponements, and returned to normal yesterday, when the fans subscribing to the Ott were able to follow Napoli and Juve. But the “irreparable damage” had already occurred, according to the League of A.
And the Undersecretary for Sport, Valentina Vezzali, first announced an urgent call, and then set the date: everyone at the government table next Friday at 6 pm, close to the second day. To avoid a new black out.
This time – unlike last year when the launch of the new licensee was hampered by patchy connection problems – it wasn’t just users who were unleashed on social networks. Ott’s apologies and the announcement of refunds were not enough.
Before the Democratic Party with Mauro Berruto, Carlo Calenda and Matteo Salvini pointed the finger at the disservice that prevented many users from following parts of Fiorentina-Cremonese and Lazio-Bologna and a large part of Salernitana-Rome and Spezia-Empoli on TV. But yesterday, August 15th, the controversy has risen to a level, and not only due to the intervention of other politicians. Immediately the AgCom – communications guarantee authority – intervened asking Dazn for compensation to damaged users and above all for clarification on how the platform was equipping itself to avoid the repetition of ‘serious inefficiencies’ on the second day.
Even heavier is the letter sent by the Serie A League chaired by Lorenzo Casini to Ott, which Ansa has read: it speaks of “prejudice and irreparable damage”, “actions to protect” are reserved, terms are indicated peremptory time to solve the problem (and before the two remaining games Dazn has provided dedicated links for users in any difficulty), the inefficiencies are defined as “absolutely serious” and reference is made to the situation of last year.
From the point of view of the fans, the partial blackout of the first season is coupled with the increase in the subscription fee; for the Serie A clubs, however, what is worrying is the repetition of last year’s scenario, when however Dazn had ‘the mitigating factor’ of his debut and network problems.
In the meantime, the current summer had marked a change of strategy: an agreement with Tim, partner for distribution, allowed access to third parties and effectively opened the passage of the entire Serie A also on Sky. Then, on Sunday, the new inefficiencies. Dazn has repeatedly apologized, has given the green light to the compensation, has assured the commitment to solve the problems as soon as possible. Codacons announces a complaint for public service disruption and fraud. The decisive game, however, is played at the table convened by Vezzali: the undersecretary will listen to Dazn and Lega di A, more counterparts than partners in this context, and with them the ministry of economic development and AgCom. For the representative of the Government, it is a “serious and unacceptable inconvenience caused to users”, and therefore it is necessary “to deal with what happened as soon as possible”. Waiting for the second day.