It has secured exclusive rights to show daily highlight coverage throughout the competition after 11 pm.
In addition RAI has news access rights for all matches for free-TV and exclusive radio rights. The package also includes live free-TV rights for the Final Draw of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which takes place on December 9, 2005 at the Leipzig Trade Fair in Germany.
Through an agreement signed in 2001, RAI already holds live free-TV rights for one match a day (25 matches in total) for the 2006 tournament.
Oliver Seibert, executive director of FIFA agents Infront Sports & Media, said: “Once again Infront’s open-market distribution policy delivers winning results for everyone. The fans in Italy will have excellent highlight coverage on free-TV, shortly after the final whistle of every 2006 FIFA World Cup match date.”
Sky Italia was confirmed in May as the second broadcast partner in Italy. It has exclusive pay-TV rights for all 64 matches of the World Cup. Of these matches, Sky will have the right to broadcast 39 matches exclusively live on pay-TV.
