12th September 2012.
SKY is the Italian satellite pay tv and pay on demand tv broadcaster and Mediaset, Digital Terrestrial Television operator with free, pay per view and subscription channels (Premium), have reached an interesting agreement on which they will exchange the most interesting sports tv programs on the market.
The two broadcasters had previously and separately gained some tv rights from UEFA and all soccer matches engaged in Europe along sports seasons 2012, 2013 and 1014. So the subscribers of each operator could not follow the entire championship. From today and for the next 3 season both groups of the 2 networks subscribers will be able so see all the matches thanks to the intelligent agreement mentioned, which also includes the top matches of Champions League on Wednesdays and all other matches of Europa League. In Europa League this year protagonists will be Inter, Napoli, Lazio, and will be diffused both in “Sport” and in “Calcio” bouquet offers. Sky is sub-licensing to Mediaset Premium the exclusive rights to rebroadcast the 128 soccer matches of Champions League aired on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Mediaset free view channel Italia 1 will in his turn rebroadcast exclusive and unscrambled both in SD and in High Definition the best Italian match from Champions League (Juventus, Milan and possibly Udinese) on Wednesdays and the best match of Europa League on Thursday. So soccer fans will be able so freely watch one of the two exclusive weekly matches, plus, freely again, the semi-finals and the “finalissima” will also follow this destiny.
Besides, Mediaset networks will also broadcast all highlights and all goals and synthesis of all matches on Thursdays and Wednesdays. Exclusively on Mediaset Premium channels soccer viewers can watch the whole Europa League and one single match per turn on the other free channels.
To many people this will sound as a cease-fire after aggressive autumn last year and spring this year in which it seemed SKY to be very aggressive acquiring a huge slice of tv rights, for Formula1, Champions League and Motomondiale, leaving the other broadcasters behind. Rumors say this is due to recover from a possible decrease in the number of subscribers in 2012 due to the economic crisis, and see in this agreement a strategic movement in order to keep the number of subscribers steady.
Sky On Demand is called the recent service launched by SKY for their subscribers through dedicated proprietary receiver “My Sky HD” through which all contents are streamed and almost 1000 “titles” are already available for delayed viewing.
Italian Serie A and Mediaset
In the mean time RAI has acquired the tv rights for Coppa Italia and Super Coppa Tim Cup for 75 millions Euro for the next 3 years. This follows the success of 14° edition of “Europei di Calcio UEFA 2012” (8th June-1st July) seen by more than 1.4 million soccer fans and over 200 countries live connected to the matches, a very positive summer Season start which inverted the generalized recent trend of reduced tv advertising investments.
