Antitrust green‑light forces Lega to rethink Serie A TV exclusivity

In a sleek conference hall in Rome, officials from the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato gathered to announce the green‑light for the Lega Serie A’s draft on televising rights, a step that will shape the commercial landscape for the next five seasons.

The antitrust authority’s approval clears the way for the league’s tender, which must be issued before the end of the calendar year, according to the weekly bulletin released by the regulator.

Scope of the five‑year cycle

The document spans the five campaigns from 2029/30 through 2033/34 and does not limit itself to the Serie A championship. It also covers the Coppa Italia, the Supercoppa Italiana and the Primavera competitions, extending the commercial remit across Italy’s senior and youth tournaments.

While the approval sets the overall perimeter, it stops short of dictating the exact composition of future broadcasting packages; those details will be worked out in the forthcoming invitations to tender.

Antitrust’s stance on exclusivity

A key concern highlighted by the regulator is the length of the rights cycle. The current 2024‑2029 quinquennial period is acceptable, but the authority warns that exclusive packages lasting more than three seasons could undermine a healthy competitive environment.

The agency argues that such long‑term exclusivity may damage service quality and limit user access, and therefore, if Serie A opts for another five‑year cycle, the auction should remove exclusive transmission zones for a substantial share of licences, allowing multiple broadcasters to air the same matches. The authority also asks for precise evaluation of package appeal, factoring club stature, broadcast slots and expected audience interest.

The guidelines do not ban exclusive deals outright; they merely urge a model that favours greater overlap between offers and heightened competition among broadcasters over a five‑year horizon.

Lega’s options for packaging and a backup channel

Lega retains considerable flexibility in how it sells the rights. Packages may be sold by platform – satellite, digital terrestrial or internet – by product, or through a mixed approach, provided the initial offer includes at least 80 percent of matches live.

If the rights are split by platform or via a mixed formula, Lega must prepare at least three distinct packages; a product‑based sale requires a minimum of two. No single operator may acquire exclusive live rights across all platforms.

The regulator also demands that a smaller package cannot consist solely of marginal games. It must contain at least a quarter of the fixtures present in the larger bundle, and at least half of its matches must be scheduled in single evening slots from 18:00 onwards.

Should competitive bidding fail or the live‑rights packages remain unsold, the guidelines allow Lega to launch its own paid Serie A channel, taking full editorial and production responsibility. The channel could be offered directly to consumers (B2C) or through other operators (B2B2C), either as a linear service or on‑demand.

By nudging the market towards co‑exclusive or overlapping packages, the Antitrust decision aims to broaden the viewer base, drive price competition and spur innovation, potentially reshaping how Italian football reaches fans in the coming decade.