Champions League returns to Rai amid raft of Italian rights deals

Italian state broadcaster Rai has acquired rights to a host of top football content, including the return of the Uefa Champions League to its screens for the first time in six years, while pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia has secured rights to the Euro 2020 national team tournament.

Under a sublicensing deal with Sky, Rai has acquired the exclusive free-to-air rights to the best Champions League match featuring an Italian club on Wednesday evenings.

Sky in June became the new rights-holder of the Champions League and Europa League club competitions in Italy. Sky secured exclusive live rights to all Champions League and Europa League matches from the 2018-19 season through to 2020-21, replacing Italian broadcaster Mediaset.

Rai’s rights package will run across the same three seasons and also includes the Champions League semi-finals and final, as well as the annual Super Cup meeting between the victors of the Champions League and Europa League. The last Champions League broadcast made by Rai was the 2011-12 final which saw Chelsea defeat Bayern Munich in a penalty shoot-out.

Rai has also reached an agreement with European football’s governing body for exclusive rights to Italy’s qualifying matches for Euro 2020 and the 2022 Fifa World Cup, along with the new Nations League competition and all international friendlies.

Rai has already secured exclusive free-to-air rights to the best 27 matches from Euro 2020 itself, as well as highlights of all remaining matches. The broadcaster added that it intends to take part in the bidding process for the rights to the 2022 World Cup, which will be hosted by Qatar.

Meanwhile, Sky has announced it has secured rights to all 51 matches from Euro 2020, 24 of which will be exclusive. Sky will broadcast the tournament for the second consecutive time, having also televised Euro 2016 in France.

In addition, Rai said that it will participate in the next auction for the rights to domestic club knockout competition the Coppa Italia for the three-season period spanning 2018-19 to 2020-21.

Meanwhile, Rai said it has also agreed a sublicensing deal with Sky for Formula One’s Italian Grand Prix, including live rights for the race at Monza, the qualifying session and all practice sessions.

Rai’s agreement was not included in the announcement made by Formula One yesterday (Thursday). Sky will hold exclusive rights to the motor-racing championship for the first time after sealing a three-season extension to its contract.

The agreement includes exclusive television and digital rights across the 2018 to 2020 seasons. Until last season, F1 coverage in Italy operated under a system whereby which all races were broadcast live by Sky, with Rai transmitting nine grands prix, along with highlights of the remaining races.

The new contract stipulates that at least four of the 21 GPs of the 2018 Formula One season – including the Italian Grand Prix – will be also broadcast live free to air on the TV8 channel, where the remaining races will be available on a delayed basis.