Italy's top-tier Serie A football league announced that it will be launching a new tender for TV rights to air live matches for the 2018-2021 period after commercial broadcaster Mediaset made no offer in the original tender, leaving Sky as the only major bidder. After Mediaset refrained from presenting a bid for any of the five packages by the 10 June deadline on grounds that the conditions were “totally unacceptable”, Lega Serie A decided to cancel the tender because “the offers were not representative of the real value of Italian football rights,” said the League's president Carlo Tavecchio.
Earlier this month Mediaset filed a complaint with Italy's antitrust authority AGCM and communications regulator Agcom on grounds that the "no single buyer rule" penalised the rights of the majority of Italian football fans who would be “forced to adhere to only one commercial offer”. Tavecchio said the new tender would now close in November or December this year.
Separately, Telecom Italia (TIM) issued a statement denying press reports that it had considered participating in the tender in partnership with other groups. “With regard to press rumours, TIM points out that it has never even evaluated or discussed participation with third parties to the Serie A rights tender,” said the company.
