Serie A, Italy’s top-flight soccer league, is entering the final weeks of its three-year media rights deal with CBS Sports in the United States. And with the 2024-25 season kicking off in a little over three months, the league still doesn’t have a new media rights deal stateside.
Per World Soccer Talk, incumbent CBS hasn’t come close to meeting Serie A’s desired value, rumored at upwards of $150 million annually. CBS is currently paying about half that, or around $75 million, per season.
In September, WST reported that CBS was “having conversations” about renewing the rights to the Italian top-tier.
However, Serie A’s aim at doubling its rights fee dampened those negotiations. Since then, WST reports two offers have come in, one that was called “considerable” and one “substantially lower.” The latter offer is from ESPN, which held Serie A’s rights before CBS.
Subsequently, World Soccer Talk understands that Serie A has received two offers for the rights. One is described by an insider as a “considerable amount,” while ESPN made a substantially lower offer. The considerable offer from CBS Sports isn’t the $150 million/year Serie A wants, but it’s understood to be very reasonable given the circumstances.
A Serie A spokesperson told WST that negotiations were “progressing positively” and that the league was confident “a deal will be reached soon.”
“As a standard practice, we do not disclose details of ongoing negotiations until a deal is finalized,” a league spokesperson told World Soccer Talk. “However, rest assured that talks are progressing positively, and we are committed to ensuring that Serie A matches continue to be broadcasted in the United States, a key territory for our strategy due to the presence of four important American players in our Championship and the country where we opened our first foreign office.
“Negotiations are still ongoing with many interested parties and we are confident that a deal will be reached soon.”
Retaining the rights to Serie A is key for CBS Sports, given its slate of European domestic league coverage is sparse outside of the Scottish Premiership (running through the 2024-25 season) and Barclays Women’s Super League (which ends after the current campaign).
About Joe Lucia
I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.