DAZN and Sky have successfully secured the rights to broadcast live Serie A matches in Italy for the upcoming five seasons, as confirmed by league officials. Italian clubs, after a four-month negotiation period, convened in Milan to evaluate the final offers presented by streaming services DAZN and Sky, which amounted to approximately 900 million euros per year until the conclusion of the 2028/2029 season, slightly below the annual value of the existing agreement.

Seventeen out of the 20 clubs supported this offer, although the decision received strong criticism from Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis, who stated, "These deals will be the downfall of Italian football." Television rights are a vital source of income for Serie A teams, including this year's champions, Napoli, as well as Juventus and the Milan-based clubs, AC Milan and Inter.

According to Serie A Chief Executive Luigi De Siervo, DAZN proposed approximately 700 million euros for the rights to broadcast all Serie A matches over the next five seasons in Italy, while Comcast's unit, Sky Italia, offered around 200 million euros to co-broadcast three out of the ten Serie A games per matchday.

Under the current three-year deal, set to expire in the coming June, Serie A generates about 930 million euros per season from the sale of TV rights in Italy, with DAZN holding the majority. De Siervo mentioned that the new agreements might match or even surpass the value of the current contracts when considering certain variable components tied to revenue sharing, potentially reaching 1 billion euros.

It's worth noting that the value of Serie A rights remains considerably lower than that of the English Premier League, which has led to an influx of top players to English clubs, reversing a trend from the 1980s and 1990s when the Italian league was the pinnacle of European soccer.

In recent months, Serie A explored the possibility of creating a media platform to distribute matches to other TV outlets and launching a self-operated live video subscription service. After the meeting, Torino chairman Urbano Cairo expressed that the figures fell below initial expectations and current contracts, but he believed it was the right decision to continue the partnership with Sky and DAZN. He also pointed out that creating a Serie A TV channel at this point would have added further risk to an already uncertain business, given the nature of the soccer industry.