Soccer-Italy plans to scrap no single buyer rule in Serie A TV rights sale
FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Serie A - Napoli v Sassuolo - Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, Naples, Italy - August 27, 2023 General view inside the stadium before the match through the television camera REUTERS/Ciro De Luca/File Photo
MILAN (Reuters) -Italy plans to remove a ban on Italy's Serie A top flight soccer league selling its domestic broadcast rights to a single buyer, a draft government bill seen by Reuters showed, marking a major overhaul of media rules for live sports events.
Italy introduced the "no single buyer rule" to avoid creating a dominant player in the pay-TV sector in 2008, when it approved a law entrusting sport leagues to collectively sell the rights to screen live matches.
Broadcasting rights are the main revenue source for Serie A clubs but they lag behind those of other major European national leagues.
Under existing contracts expiring in the 2028-29 season, Serie A earns some 900 million euros ($1 billion) annually from sport streaming service DAZN and pay-TV firm Sky, with the former screening all of the games and Sky co-broadcasting some of them.
That sum is roughly half of the annual domestic broadcasting revenue of England's Premier League, which has a 'no single buyer rule' in place.
Germany's Bundesliga, which last year removed its 'no single buyer rule', pockets some 1.1 billion euros annually from domestic broadcasting licences, according to data compiled by UEFA.
The Italian government also plans to introduce changes in the way Serie A distributes the TV revenue among clubs, raising to "above 50%" from the current 50% the sum which must be equally split among all clubs, the draft bill showed.
Clubs which develop and field young Italian players will be also granted additional revenue.($1 = 0.8758 euros)
(Reporting by Elvira PollinaEditing by Keith Weir)
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