Serie A reaches TV rights deal with Abu Dhabi Media

Serie A on Thursday accepted the offer of TV platform Abu Dhabi Media to broadcast the Italian league in the Middle East and North Africa after more than a year without a broadcaster in this region.

For the next three seasons, Abu Dhabi Media, an Emirati public body, have been awarded the rights for a minimum total amount of 79 million dollars (75 million euros), the Italian League announced.

To this guaranteed minimum income may be added any additional revenue linked to the number of subscribers that Italian football will generate on the platform, a spokesperson for Serie A told AFP. 

In the absence of a satisfactory offer in its call for tenders last year, the Italian League had developed its own Youtube channel in Arabic to offer matches free of charge — five per day during the first part of the season then the all 10 matches from February. 

The call for tenders for the new three-year cycle in this region was deemed unsuccessful last year, penalised in particular by the absence of a new offer from beIN sport, holder of the rights until then. 

BeIN had criticised Serie A for having concluded partnerships with Saudi Arabia, in particular for the organisation of the Italian Supercup. 

The Qatari group was in conflict with the Saudi state, which it accused of being behind BeoutQ, a system for pirating sports images. 

In June 2020, beIN had suspended the broadcast of the Italian championship for a time due to this conflict.

BeIN Sports had reportedly paid some 112 million euros per season for these rights, almost 4.5 times more than what the new broadcaster will pay.