Football rights: Naples wants to broadcast the matches directly on Netflix & Cie

It’s a big cobblestone in the pond. To reinvigorate transalpine football, the boss of the Napoli team, Aurelio de Laurentiis, proposes that the clubs of the Italian championship convert to a new model of live broadcasting on platforms like netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV+.

Freshly become Italian champions, Naples has had a stratospheric season despite a much lower budget compared to its direct competitors – Juventus Turin, Inter Milan and AC Milan – who usually dominate the scene. Enough to give a good dose of legitimacy to Aurelio de Laurentiis, one of the biggest film producers in the country, to come back to the charge with a proposal that would have something to upset the way of broadcasting Serie A matches.

Copernican Revolution

According to the leader, quoted by the “Financial Times”, Italian clubs should start taking care of the live audiovisual production of the matches, and then turn to the major international platforms to broadcast them. If he did not provide other details, or specify whether the project amounted to offering Italian football on demand (pay-per-view), the method would break with the multi-annual and exclusive contracts which today govern the broadcast of the championship in Italy as well as everywhere in Europe.

Examples already exist. The Spanish La Liga is thus offered to British viewers via the Amazon Prime video site. And, in Germany, the Bundesliga is in discussions with private equity funds for an investment that could lead to this type of “direct-to-consumer” streaming platform.

The idea is therefore not totally new, but comes at a pivotal moment. Serie A has just published its tender for a new round of rights from the 2024/25 season with a mechanism that should ensure clubs at least 1.2 billion euros per year in the event of a three-year agreement, with a clause to earn more if the contract is longer.

No agreement between Italian clubs

In fact, the idea of ​​​​the Neapolitan leader probably does not represent the position of the league. “It’s a bit of a tossed-up idea, it proves once again that Italian clubs cannot speak with one voice. We can expect the worst for the call for tenders, ”analyzes Pierre Maes, TV rights specialist and author of “The ruin of French football” (Fyp).

A few years ago, Serie A clubs tried to open up their league’s capital to CVC and other funds in order to better monetize the rights, but the “deal” fell through due to internal tensions. For its part, CVC – very active in sport – had finally decided to invest in the Spanish Liga, then took a 13% share in the new commercial company of Ligue 1 for 1.5 billion euros.

According to Aurelio de Laurentiis, adopting a strategy of producing and broadcasting live matches would also have the effect of better combating piracy and the disaffection of young audiences for football. The platforms must still be interested: “the model would be based on non-exclusive content. However, the platforms are precisely seeking to differentiate themselves through exclusive content, ”recalls Pierre Maes.

Finally, “the leagues will only do direct-to-consumer if they have to,” predicts the specialist. “As long as there are broadcasters to support marketing, they will be privileged. Recruit subscribers, then retain them, the leagues do not know how to do. In this context, the exit of Aurelio de Laurentiis could be likened to a bluff intended to raise the stakes.