“Italian football, whatever anyone says about it, has great value.” The CEO of the Serie A League, Luigi De Siervo, says this to “Il Sole 24 Ore”, speaking about the assignment of TV rights. The president of Napoli, Aurelio De Laurentiis, however, was critical to say the least: “what I can say is that we have achieved a result that I consider excellent. On the one hand we have managed to guarantee a significant floor equal to 900 million per year compared to the current 927. But above all we achieved what we were trying to achieve with the thematic channel: the possibility of earning further money, but without risks for Serie A. We are not members of Dazn, but once the turnover threshold of 750 million has been exceeded by the platform we will obtain 50% of the gross revenues, not of the margin, which always discounts the cost variable”.
“There have been over 27 different schemes with multiple packages. We have tried all possible avenues in a context like the Italian one in which the Antitrust, unlike what happens in Spain, does not allow rights and connectivity to be sold together, which is what allows Telefónica to pay what it pays. We had to work in a context practically without competition because the interested parties had very different ambitions. We were close to assigning a free-to-air match and we have to thank Mediaset for believing in the project. But the conditions were not there because the strong entity, Dazn, essential in all market configurations, has never really evaluated any alternative to the current model”.
As for investment funds, “we were the first to be approached by the funds because we are the League with the greatest potential for future growth. This time the projects presented were too little in depth to receive substantial attention. But the attention we received confidential confirms the growing importance of Serie A. Far from poor and worthless Italian football.”
Source-www.adnkronos.com