Italian clubs have agreed a new three-year deal for the transmission of a weekly highlights package with state broadcaster RAI, even though the deal falls well short of their original demands.
The agreement ends weeks of wrangling between the two sides, with RAI offering to pay the clubs €62 million a year for highlights of Serie A games and live transmission of Italy’s domestic cup competition. This figure is down from last year’s offer of €82 million, reflecting the diminished value of football television rights.
While the deal will come as a relief to the beleagured sport, it does nothing to resolve the thorny issue of pay-per-view deals that forced theItalian Football Federation to delay the start of the new season by a fortnight.
Eight of the smaller Serie A clubs (Atlanta, Brescia, Chievo, Como, Empoli, Modena, Perugia and Piacenza) have yet to arrange pay-per-view deals for transmission of live matches and although a revised offer from the two pay-TV channels (Tele Piu and Stream) of €50 million was made to the eight, this still falls short of the €80 million demanded by the clubs.
