After 18 years, the era of Sky as sole or main broadcaster of Serie A football could really come to an end. Indeed, after having won TV rights for the next three years it was Dazn and Tim (new compared to the last few years: a subscription will suffice to watch all the matches) Murdoch's broadcaster could even disappear from the panorama of possible options. The co-exclusive offer for 3 matches per day (they would still go on Dazn, but also on another platform) was raised from 70 to 87 million, but the League abstained. Now a new tender will start, but the game reopens completely and it is no longer said that Sky is the favorite: Mediaset and also Amazon Prime Video come into play, which has already scored the coup in the Champions League (from next season it will exclusively broadcast the 16 best matches on Wednesdays). After an entire era as a main channel, Sky isn't even sure of bringing home 3 games a day, or even exclusively. So how will the mosaic of the TV offer of the next championships and major football events be composed? Here is the picture.
SERIES A 2021-2024
As mentioned, all the matches will go on the Dazn streaming platform (also visible by connecting to a smart TV), with another broadcaster (Sky, or Mediaset, or Amazon) broadcasting three games a day on a co-exclusive basis.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
While for the Italian championship it will therefore be enough to subscribe to a single season ticket (although presumably Dazn will no longer cost 10 euros per month but at least triple it), the situation for the European cups is tangled, which in the last season were the total prerogative of Sky ( both Champions and Europa League), with Mediaset broadcasting free-to-air one a week of the Champions League. From August Sky will continue to have most of the matches but no longer all: 121 in total, including the final. The 16 best matches on Wednesday (one for each round, group included) will instead go exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, while Mediaset will broadcast the 16 best matches on Tuesday and the final unencrypted.
EUROPA LEAGUE
Sky will give all the matches but there will also be another operator for streaming. It could once again be Dazn, but also Mediaset or even Eurosport.
ITALIAN NATIONAL TEAM, ITALIAN CUP AND SUPERCUP
These matches are usually all the prerogative of Rai. It will certainly still be like this for the national team (qualifications, European championships, friendlies, etc.), for the cups it is not official but the current set-up should be confirmed.
FOREIGN CHAMPIONSHIPS
The English Premier League will remain on Sky where it already is, but it is the only major European championship that certainly remains on Sky: the German Bundesliga is now to be reassigned while the French Ligue 1 and above all the Spanish Liga are for now in the hands of Dazn, also if they too are reassigned and it is not excluded that Sky throws itself into that segment.
EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP 2021 AND WORLD CUP 2022
The World Cup in Qatar are still to be assigned: Rai and Amazon are in the running. For the European Championships next June, Sky will broadcast all 51 matches, while Rai will broadcast 27, including those of Italy obviously. As for the European Championship, which among other things will have its inaugural match in Rome and which will be as per the traveling programme, there is also the hypothesis of partially reopening the stadiums. A decision will be made by April 7, but in the meantime the FIGC has the objective of welcoming 20-25.000 fans for the match at the Olimpico, rigorously vaccinated or with a very recent negative swab. To do it an app, Mitiga, was launched, by downloading which each stadium ticket holder will have a barcode on their device, which guarantees anonymity and which certifies that a negative swab has been taken or that one has been vaccinated. Reasonably between now and 11 June, the day of the opening match in Rome, it makes sense to think that a certain number of Italians will be vaccinated and it should be possible to complete the experiment which also serves as a test for the reopening of stadiums from next season .
