Elisa Pallotta Topics Covered
A draft of drawing di law is laying the foundations for a new regulation on TV rights that is more appropriate to the current context, by overcoming the law Melandri of 2008.
TV rights: the new bill
The aim is to delegate the government to reform the system of rights sales, a topic that could come up in one of the next meetings of the Council of Ministers.
Among the new features, for example, is the possibility of granting sports TV rights exclusively to a single operator, with licenses of up to three years, with a decisive overcoming of the prohibition principle that had been established 17 years ago. To date, for the Serie A TV rights are held by Dazn e Sky, with Dazn broadcasting all 10 league matches, while three out of 10 matches are co-exclusive with Sky and are broadcast by both broadcasters. As regards the Champions League, Sky broadcasts most of the matches, except for the one on Wednesday (from the phase league to the semi-finals) which is instead broadcast by Prime Video. Coppa Italia e Super Cup Italian ones are instead broadcast on the networks Mediaset.
TV rights: when will the changes come into force?
The bill provides for a one-year deadline for the implementing decrees, so that they come into force from July 2026st XNUMX. Among the objectives, that of achieving the best economic result possible from the transfer of rights, at the same time with the guarantee of the regular running of the competitions. With regards to the championship of Serie A, we read in the draft, although a duration of more than three years can be foreseen, it will be theGuarantee Authority in communications (Agcom) to "ascertain the conditions of the national audiovisual and digital market, also in reference to other national and international football competitions or those relating to other disciplines athletic, taking into account the duration of the licensing contracts and considering the evolution of the European single market, once these have occurred, exclusive exploitation measures in favour of a single operator may be determined”. The bill also touches on the issue of economic redistribution between clubs. The resources will be divided into three parts: one quota higher than 50% will be divided equally among all teams, another based on the sporting results obtained from 1999/2000 onwards and a third proportionate to the commitment in the youth sectors, with particular attention to the valorisation of young Italians; among the technologies contemplated, there are also those based on Artificial Intelligence. Through this measure the government would be "delegated to to adopt within a year one or more legislative decrees aimed at regulating both a rapid and sustainable technological development and structural aspects of newly built sports facilities and the modernization, renovation, integration and completion of existing ones, both marketing centralized management of audiovisual, digital and ancillary rights for professional team competition sporting events”.
TV rights: what will change with the new reform
Another part of the bill concerns the sponsorships sports for betting companies. They are recognized "even if only in an indirect form, the sponsorship by the operators of games and bets that are included in the register kept by the Customs and Monopolies Agency, as well as a share of the collection of games and bets also in favor of the organizers and the development of sports facilities". "A part of the general mutuality of the professional system", according to this draft, "will be allocated to the fondo for the contrast to pathological gambling”. What could change with the new reform? Both for the championship and for the Champions League, the TV rights could be assigned to a single broadcaster, as happened until a few years ago, when Sky had the exclusive rights for both competitions, before the current legislation. On times but there is no certainty: Dazn has a five-year exclusive for the Serie A rights, which began a year ago and will continue until 2029, so it is unlikely that the rights will be revoked to start a new tender. The actual scope of the reform, therefore, can only be measured in next years.