Sky Italia fights back

Italy's cash-strapped football clubs may have to pay dearly for sparking a stand-off between media moguls Rupert Murdoch and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Murdoch's Sky Italia is preparing a counter-offensive after Berlusconi family network Mediaset snatched the rights to show top league games on digital TV and Italy's clubs are in the firing line. After Mediaset's raid deep into Sky Italia's territory, Murdoch's money-losing satellite TV firm wants to renegotiate broadcast deals with top clubs Juventus, Inter Milan and Berlusconi's own AC Milan, saying it now deserves a discount because of the new rival on its turf. For three seasons, from 2004-2007, Sky Italia's deal saw it paying Juventus € 249.5m, Milan € 192m and Inter € 180m for the right to show their matches. Mediaset paid € 86m for the right to show the same matches on digital TV, ADSL and cable. Mediaset also secured an option on the satellite rights to the three clubs home games after the end of the 2006/07 season and exercising the option would allow it to block Sky Italia's access to most key Italian games. Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan, Italy's most glamorous sides, may be its richest, but football rights are the life-blood of the troubled Italian industry that is battling record debts, heavy losses and criminal investigations into accounting fraud.

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.