Italian Soccer Signs Deal to Return Matches to TV After Blackout
Italian Soccer Nears Deal to Return to Global TV After Blackout
(Bloomberg) -- Qatar’s BeIN Media settled a dispute with Serie A that allows it to resume broadcasts of Italy’s elite soccer league, ending a weeklong, global blackout triggered by a long-running conflict over TV piracy.
BeIN, which broadcasts in 35 territories including France and Australia, will have exclusive coverage of Friday’s evening match between Juventus -- Cristiano Ronaldo’s club -- and Lecce, the company said in a statement. It didn’t give a value of the agreement.
The original three-year accord due to expire in 2021 was for $500 million. Serie A was set to accept a discount to its rights fees to seal the new pact, a person familiar with the deal told Bloomberg Thursday.
Central to the issue was BeIn’s battle against piracy of its content in Saudi Arabia. The company’s transmission was blocked as part of an economic blockade against Qatar, and another broadcaster took the signal to show the matches to Saudi audiences. BeIN said the new deal should send a message to all rights holders.
“The agreement reached regarding Serie A sets a major precedent, reinforcing what BeIN and other international broadcasters have been saying for years: If rights-holders don’t tackle piracy, they’ll only receive nonexclusive fees,” a BeIN spokesman said in a statement.
BeIn says the Serie A rights deal signed for 2018-21 was for exclusive content, but the league later agreed to stage three of its Super Cup matches in Jeddah over five seasons -- the first contest was in January 2019, with Ronaldo scoring the winning goal.
Friday’s settlement is worth more than Serie A received for playing games in Saudi Arabia, BeIN said, without giving more details.
Just ahead of last weekend’s league restart, BeIN announced without warning it wouldn’t be showing the matches, depriving fans of big names such as Ronaldo and clubs with storied histories including Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan.
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