Lightning from the blue on the TV rights of Serie A. Sky's offer to grab the assignment of the TV rights of the Italian championship for the next three years (up to the 2020-21 season), was exceeded by a thousand euros by the Spanish MediaPro , for a total offered of one billion, 50 million and one thousand euros. The minimum price envisaged by the tender, which was the one offered by satellite TV (it currently has the rights to Serie A and also to the Champions League for the next three years), has therefore been exceeded. At the end of January, however, the auction seems to have stopped at an impasse given that the offers had stopped at 800 million. The assembly of the League will now be able to proceed with the communication to the Authority for the competition and the market for the assignment of TV rights.
Although the story may not close so quickly, given that Sky's reaction was immediate. Through his lawyers, he warned the Serie A League against assigning MediaPro the audiovisual rights of Serie A for the 2018-21 seasons, given that apparently the Spanish audiovisual group MediaPro - despite having presented an offer to the specific tender addressed exclusively to "independent intermediaries" – would not operate as an independent intermediary but as a real communication operator. As we also learn from the press, MediaPro would in fact have started a negotiation with the League during the private negotiation to "create one or more thematic channels also in the form of official channels of the League", taking care of the schedules and editorial capacity. A truly anomalous procedure.
MediaPro also allegedly negotiated with the intention of "selling advertising space on the same channels", "concluding agreements for the distribution of these channels with the communication operators concerned" and sharing the profits with the League. Media Pro therefore intends to act to all intents and purposes as an active communication operator on the territory and towards users (violating paragraph 5.3 of the second Invitation). Furthermore, since the award of all exclusive rights to a single communication operator is precluded (no single buyer rule), the assignment to MediaPro also violates article 9.4 of the Melandri Decree and paragraph 24.b of the Guidelines. Because of this Sky asks the League to consider MediaPro's offer inadmissible and therefore to interrupt private negotiations with the Spanish group and to immediately exclude it from the assignment procedure.
