For the 2021 - 2022 Serie A championship, De Laurentiis has thought about a total change in TV rights: goodbye to the Sky-DAZN duopoly and opening up to new competitors
Increasing the audience of users as much as possible to increase revenues and make Serie A, and consequently all the teams, even richer. This is how one can summarize what has been called the "De Laurentiis plan" for the relaunch of the top Italian league, starting with the auction of television rights scheduled for the 2021-2022 championship. The president of Napoli presented last week a strategic plan to increase the revenues generated by television rights, accompanied by precise numbers.
Numbers that have been revealed by Milano Finanza and that allow to understand how the television rights of Serie A could change from the championship 2021 - 2022. The central focus of De Laurentiis' plan is the "in house" production of Serie A matches thanks to the support of investment funds. What does this mean? That the production of the matches will be entrusted to the Lega di Serie A, which will then resell the signal to all platforms that show interest. A "full optional" package that includes not only the match, but also pre and post match interviews and any in-depth programs.
This plan does not provide for the exclusivity of transmissions for only one or two broadcasters as it happens now (Sky and DAZN), but it would give everyone the opportunity to buy the match package and resell it to their customers at a fixed price: 29.99 euros (plus VAT) per month.
De Laurentiis' plan to watch Serie A on TV
A real revolution is the one presented by De Laurentiis to the other Serie A presidents for the management of television rights for the 2021-2022 season. The goal is to no longer depend on individual broadcasters, but to have the matches and all associated content produced directly by the Serie A League. The project partly traces the one presented by Mediapro a few years ago and which envisaged the creation of a Serie A channel to be resold to the individual broadcasters.
And this is roughly what the De Lautentiis plan envisages. The characteristics have been anticipated by Milano Finanza that has analyzed every aspect. The patron of Napoli expects to make over 2.6 billion euros when the whole project is fully operational, thanks to a turnover that exceeds 3 billion and operating expenses of just over 354 million euros. In order for everything to work for the best, the Lega di Serie A should also provide itself with a structure that is currently lacking for the management of contracts, advertising and journalists.
The aspect that, however, most interests fans is where they will be able to watch Serie A. The De Laurentiis plan wants to fight the current duopoly, formed by DAZN and Sky, and widen as much as possible the number of platforms interested in broadcasting the A Series.
How much will it cost to subscribe to see the A Series
To recover the subscribers lost in recent years (the De Laurentiis plan estimates at least 700,000), the only thing is to focus on the quality of the product, on a reasonable price and, above all, on a wider offer. For this reason, it is necessary to say goodbye to the Sky-DAZN duopoly and focus on a wider audience.
In De Laurentiis' idea, the monthly subscription to see the Serie A matches and some exclusive content should cost 29.99 euros per month plus VAT. The same price on all platforms that decide to offer their customers the viewing of Serie A matches.
The individual broadcasters would purchase the finished product from the Serie A League and would earn a percentage on each subscription subscribed. There are no preclusions on any type of broadcaster and platform, all can contract with the League of Serie A: Sky, DAZN, but also Amazon, which is increasingly focusing on Twitch to broadcast original sports content, Netflix, Tim, Vodafone.
For fans the savings would be significant, because they could decide to buy only the package "Serie A", without having to subscribe to any other type of subscription.