There is no peace at home Sky Italy. Satellite TV, which until a few years ago was practically a monopolist on the rights of Italian football and almost always also of European cups and major events, has officially entered a difficult season, perhaps one of decline. Meanwhile, satellite is no longer "fashionable": hardly anyone invests in this segment anymore, given the free offer of digital terrestrial and the paid but cheaper, more agile and more suited to the tastes of the young audience, streaming platforms . In fact, if today films, TV series and documentaries are watched on demand and perhaps on tablets or mobile phones via Netflix, Disney + and Amazon Prime Video (just to name a few), the same is true for football and sport. And the most suitable platform at that point is no longer the "old" TV with remote control and programming but Dazn's cooked and eaten "mosaic".
Just the British network has scored the coup, recently stealing from Sky the coveted television rights for Serie A, held continuously by Sky for 18 years. The Football League has decided that from next season, and for at least three seasons, all football championship matches will be broadcast on Dazn, which presented the best offer also taking advantage of Tim's technological (and financial) support. At the moment there is nothing left for Sky, and a further tender to assign 3 matches on Sunday (co-exclusively, therefore on Dazn anyway) would leave only the crumbs to the group led in Italy by Maximo Ibarra. Not to mention that not even the Champions League, another strong point of Sky, which in recent seasons (including the current one) has broadcast all the matches almost exclusively, will be more subdivided as it is now.
In fact, Amazon Prime Video will take over from August (speaking of streaming platforms): Sky will still have the exclusive on 121 matches plus the final, but the best 16 matches on Wednesday will only be broadcast by Bezos' channel. And 16 matches on Tuesday will be unencrypted on Mediaset. Sky will fully cover the European Championships in June (largely also visible on Rai), but remained out of the match for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, assigned in full to Rai. After the debacle, the Ad Ibarra hastened to reiterate great ambitions, announcing the entry of Disney + into the Sky offer and focusing on a richer schedule of "other sports" (albeit often minor), but the feeling is that the wind is changing. As proof of this, there is even a redundancy plan presented to the unions. Over the next 4 years, due to the void left by football, Sky is forced to cut costs by 300 million, which means a substantial reduction in personnel: currently, between direct and indirect employees, there are around 11.000, but 2.500 or 3.000 of them will be progressively escorted to the door.
The formula found excludes real layoffs, it will rather be voluntary exits or early retirements. Unions are already on a war footing: the danger is that the plan does not even fully take into account the blow to TV rights and that it will even be tightened up in the coming months: "I am worried about any implications of the issue of football TV rights - said Pierpaolo Mischi, national secretary of Uilcom Uil -, with possible further negative impacts on employment. In this case, as CEO Ibarra said, there could be an update of the plan and this could involve some risk, even if the CEO himself confirmed that it should be managed in continuity with the current one, according to social sustainability criteria".
