The Italian Football League on Thursday approved media company Abu Dhabi’s offer to broadcast Serie A matches in the Middle East and North Africa more than a year after there was no buyer for broadcast rights in the region.
Abu Dhabi Media, a public Emirati entity, has announced that it has secured the rights to the next three seasons for a total of at least $79 million (€75 million).
A Serie A spokesman told AFP that any additional revenue related to the number of subscribers that Italian football will generate on the platform could be added to this guaranteed minimum income.
Due to the lack of a satisfactory offer in its bidding request last year, the Italian League set up its own YouTube channel in Arabic to provide free matches, five matches a day during the first part of the season and then all ten matches. since February.
Requests for proposals were not fruitful last year and were particularly affected by the absence of a new show from Qatari channel BN Sports, the rights holder until that time.
And beIN Sports had the exclusive right to move the Italian league to the region until last season, but did not renew the contract due to a legal dispute between the Qatari group and Saudi Arabia, which the sports network accuses of supporting an illegal satellite broadcast system dubbed Beout. Que.
In June 2020, beIN criticized the partnership between the Italian League and Saudi Arabia, which hosted the Italian Super Cup in 2018 and 2019 after the 2014 and 2016 editions were held in the Qatari capital Doha.
Until the season before last, beIN Sports paid around €112m annually for the rights to relocate the Italian league, according to specialist website Calcio Finanza, which is about a third of all income received from the rights to relocate Serie A matches outside of Italy.
