by Monica Colombo
The CEO of the League of A De Siervo: «We are at the fifth stage of a complex path. The important thing is that the work carried out by the commission has led the broadcasters’ offers to grow progressively over time”
The moment of reckoning is approaching. The binding offers of the three broadcasters competing to win the Serie A TV rights from 2024 and for the next five years will expire on 15 October. At the moment they are far from the minimum figure requested by the League in the tender, of 1.2 billion: Dazn proposes 700 million, Sky 110, Mediaset, for the free-to-air match on Saturday evening, 60. Total 870 million, approximately sixty in less than what companies currently collect each year (927.5). Tomorrow a new round of private negotiations will take place, the last one available before the meeting scheduled for Monday.
CEO De Siervo and the commission made up of Aurelio De Laurentiis, Claudio Lotito, Angelo Capellini, Stefano Campoccia and Luca Percassi will go to the meeting with the TV managers. The negotiation for the TV rights of Serie A «remains extremely complex» Luigi De Siervo underlines on the sidelines of the Comolake event. «We have said it several times, it is no coincidence that we are at the fifth stage of a complex journey. The important thing is that the work carried out by the commission has led the broadcasters’ offers to grow progressively over time and we hope that this further step will also increase further”. Moreover, the CEO continues, the tone of the discussion «has always been professional, no confrontation. The League is clear about its value; on the other hand, the complicated context mainly due to the gigantic problem of piracy is evident. Parliament has expressed itself with a law, but the platform has not yet started, not because there is no technical platform but because a technical roundtable has begun which takes longer than expected. So the context of the sad record that Italy has of being the most pirated country remains a fact and this is the real battle. As always, I remain confident that the three parties will be able to find the context to raise the value of the offers tomorrow.”
All eyes on the summit in a city hotel set for Friday. On the other hand, plan B for the League is already at hand. «The Lega Channel is a certainty» underlines the CEO of via Rosellini. «We have developed the production center in Lissone where we directly deal with the live production of the matches. We launched the League radio. The technical passage to the Canal does not represent an obstacle. It is a commercial and industrial fact and in Monday’s meeting, on the sidelines of the presentation of the broadcasters’ offers, we will also present the Channel plan because it is the real alternative to accepting the best offers as they will be formalised”. The challenge to television has been thrown down.
Furthermore, for the construction of the canal, there are six funds and banks vying to become partners of the League. Among them, the American Oaktree fund stands out, which in May 2021 granted a 275 million loan to Suning for Inter (and in the meantime the debt has risen to 330) and subscribed to part of the bond issued by the Nerazzurri club. In recent days according to Bloomberg (and the League confirms) Oaktree presented an offer of 1 billion euros guaranteed per season for the creation of the channel. According to the proposal, the agreement would last ten years and further investments would be related to the number of subscribers to the channel. But as we said, the priority is the broadcasters. If no increases arrive and the companies at Monday’s meeting reject the TV economic proposals, the six envelopes containing the proposals for the marketing of TV rights will be opened. Oaktree says it is interested.
October 5, 2023 (modified October 5, 2023 | 8:01 pm)
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