Complicated debut and criticisms. The company: “Settlement phase”
the case
MILANO
Ninety minutes thinking back to 90 million. The first day of the streaming era of Italian football has rekindled the dust of the clash within Serie A. The clubs opposed to the assignment of 2021-24 TV rights to Dazn (led by Rome, Genoa, Sampdoria and Sassuolo) are back in charge after the problems highlighted by the British platform, the new queen of live images of our championship. “We told you so”, is the summary of the message of the companies that last spring warned about the technological risks associated with this historic transition after almost 30 years of satellite with Sky in a position of strength.
Now the battle is no holds barred and crosses the transfer price of the archive rights (negotiated individually by each club) as well as the choice of which interviews to carry out on the sidelines of the matches. Dazn yesterday publicly admitted, with a long note, the problem related to the three-minute peak during Inter-Genoa on Saturday. But he also recalled that “an epochal turning point is taking place, that of the transition from traditional TV to Oct, made possible thanks to the significant technological investments that Dazn has put in place together with its partners to encourage digitization and bring Italy to be an extremely competitive country also on this front. As in every phase of change, and as has already happened in the past, the introduction of new technologies of this magnitude requires a physiological moment of adjustment ». The problems experienced at the dawn of the launch of satellite TV come to mind.
The streaming platform is enhancing Dazn Edge, the internal structure set up to manage traffic in person (without relying on external companies, often competitors) and optimize processes with global Cdn, the now famous network hubs, decisive for promoting correct viewing images.
Lega Serie A recalls that it was not a reckless venture to sell the TV rights to Dazn. The issue was explored at length last spring. Two university professors expert on the subject were consulted and gave their green light. And the role of guarantor of Tim, the main operator in our country and partner of Dazn in this adventure, weighed. Without forgetting that Dazn had a three-year period (2018-21) in which, with rare exceptions especially in the initial phase, he had not highlighted any particular flaws.
It is true that there were only three games, but it was not a company that came out of nowhere in Italy. And, to get to the heart of the matter, Dazn had offered 840 million per season for Serie A TV rights, 90 more than the 750 put on the table by Sky, already at odds with the clubs for having frozen the last installment of payments related to the championship interrupted by the lockdown in spring 2020. Furthermore, the CEO of the League, Luigi De Siervo, would have liked to introduce the great novelty of a live free-to-air league match to increase the revenues of the last unsold package, but the companies closest to Sky opposed it. That 90 million difference represents almost 11% of the total sales sum, at a time of profound crisis caused by the pandemic. Is the technological gamble worth more or less than 90 million? Should the quality of the fiber in Italy push the League not to take into consideration the offers of the streaming giants, limiting the auction only to other platforms? These are all questions to consider in these chaotic days dominated by the wave of criticism via social networks.
Sports rights are increasingly sold to web broadcasters. Uefa itself in Italy has sold to Amazon the rights for the best 16 Wednesday games of the Champions League. The League, as it always does when technical problems occur, has sent a letter to Dazn to ask for the inefficiencies to be eliminated. A technical table will meet shortly to analyze the situation. In the meantime, the fans consult the championship calendar with their attention already turned to the third day on the weekend of 12 September, when Napoli-Juventus and Milan-Lazio are scheduled. The wait for two matches is now mixed with fear of traffic peaks. He expects a net hoping it will keep the net. –