Milan, Italy, 10 July 2009 – The Italian Lega Nazionale Professionisti (LNP), the governing body of the Italian professional football leagues has today launched the tender process for the Italian League Serie A television rights, with the assistance and professional advice of Infront Sports & Media. The international sport marketing group is the Lega’s exclusive advisor in the exploitation of the national and international media rights for all its properties, starting from the 2010/11 season, for six seasons.  

The first rights to be offered are the exclusive domestic rights for Serie A for the 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 seasons. It tender has been published today, one week after the official approval of the tender guidelines by the national Anti-trust Authority. The guidelines had already been approved by the Italian Communication Authority in May 2009. The Serie B tender will be released at a later stage.  

 

Exclusive domestic packages

For Serie A, six exclusive tender packages are available to media companies in Italy:

 

1. Platinum Live

Platform: Satellite (Pay)

Rights description: 

• Live and delayed transmission of all matches via satellite platform
• Retransmission via IPTV including rights for sales to commercial closed circuits (e.g. hotels, bars)
• Redistribution to commercial users (e.g. hotels, bars) 
• Exclusive ancillary rights (interviews, production integration, etc.)

 

2. Satellite Highlights

Platform: Satellite (Pay)

Rights description:

• Delayed highlight coverage (max. 4 min./match) of all matches 
• Exclusive Pay-TV exploitation periods: for matches kicking-off prior to 3.00pm: 5.30-10.30pm (same day); for matches kicking-off after 3.00pm: after 10:50pm (same day)

 

3. Gold Live

Platform: Digital terrestrial (Pay)

Rights description:

• Live and delayed transmission of the matches of 12 teams (first pick of 10, third pick of 2 by the licensee )
• Retransmission via IPTV
• Redistribution to commercial users (e.g. hotels, bars)

 

4. Silver Live

Platform: Digital terrestrial (Pay)

Rights description:

• Live and delayed transmission of the matches of the remaining 8 teams (second pick of 3 and fourth pick of 5)
• Retransmission via IPTV
• Redistribution to commercial users (e.g. hotels, bars)

 

5. Platinum Highlights

Platform: Free-TV

Rights description: 

• Delayed highlight coverage (max. 4 min./match) of all matches
• Exclusive free TV exploitation periods: for matches kicking-off prior to 3.00pm: 6.00-11.00pm (same day); for matches kicking-off after 3.00pm: 10.00-11.15pm (same day)

 

6. Radio Live

Platform: Radio

Rights description: Live and delayed transmission of all matches

 

Full tender information available online

LNP invites bidders to submit their offers in writing by 27 July 2009 (12.00am). The full tender information is available on the website of Lega Calcio (www.lega-calcio.it) and was announced today in selected national Italian newspapers.  

 

It is planned to offer non-exclusive domestic rights for tender in Q4 of 2009. The international tender is scheduled for launch in autumn 2009 together with the rights to Coppa Italia and Super Coppa.  

 

New Serie A playing schedule starting from 2010/2011

The packages in the tender for the Serie A rights include two Saturday matches, all at different kick-off times, one at 6.00pm and one at 8.45pm (replacing 8.30pm kick-off), and eight matches on Sundays, one at 12.30am (new additional kick-off time), six at 3.00pm and one match at 8.45pm (replacing the 8.30pm kick-off).  

 

Marco Bogarelli, Member of the Board of Directors of Infront and President of Infront Italy, said: “This is an exciting and challenging operation. Infront’s experience in the management of top football rights and our state-of-the-art approach to packaging will undoubtedly facilitate the tender process. The six different exclusive domestic packages on offer for Serie A fulfil a clear market need and ensure comprehensive coverage for millions of football fans in Italy.”  

 

About Serie A

Italy’s Serie A is one of the biggest and most popular football leagues in the world. There are a total of 20 clubs competing in Serie A. From August to May, all clubs play each other twice (home and away), totalling in 380 league matches. The top three teams qualify for the UEFA Champions League directly; the 4th placed team enters the qualification round for the competition. The teams finishing 5th and 6th qualify for the UEFA Europe League together with the Coppa Italia winner. The bottom three teams are relegated to Serie B directly.  

 

About Infront Sports & Media – a renowned player in football

Infront Sports & Media, based in Zug, Switzerland, is an experienced international full service sports marketing company with a capacity for innovation that is helping to transform the industry. These innovations have enhanced every area of sports marketing, including distribution of rights, host broadcast, programme production, event operations, brand development, sponsorship and even online entertainment. Infront has 500 employees across 23 offices in 10 countries.  

 

Infront has an extensive football portfolio: The Group is a partner of top European football leagues, including Italian's Lega Calcio and the French Football League (Ligue 1) – handling the host broadcast for the first division of the up until 2011/2012 – national football associations including the DFB in Germany and several clubs like SV Werder Bremen, FC Schalke 04, U.S. Città di Palermo, Cagliari Calcio and S.S. Lazio Rome. Infront is also best known for working with the sport’s governing bodies. It successfully delivered the global media rights sales and host broadcast of the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cup™. Today, Infront is involved in the distribution of the Asian media rights to the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cup™ (in a joint venture with Dentsu). The company’s dedicated and highly specialised host broadcast organisation Host Broadcast Services (HBS), is handling the host broadcast of the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cup™ and also contributes to UEFA Euro™ events.  

 

 

For further information, please contact:  

 

Jörg Polzer

Manager, Communication & PR

Infront Sports & Media AG

Tel. +41-41-723 15 15

Fax +41-41-723 15 16

press infrontsports.com

www.infrontsports.com