The streaming giant Netflix is seriously considering entering the television rights market Serie A starting from the season 2029/2030. A move that could represent an epochal turning point in the panorama of sports broadcasting in Italy, opening up new scenarios for national football.
So life is hard for Sky e DAZN who could “earn” an additional amount competitor in the race for the sporting rights of the Italian football championship. The news was reported by the 19th century assuming a possible investment by the US platform of approximately 200 million euros of its $34 billion in revenue, for:
- obtain the rights currently held by Sky;
- transmit three matches per round in co-exclusive.
Netflix thinks about Serie A
The interest of Netflix for the Serie A is part of a broader strategy aimed at conquering the sports streaming market:
- at Christmas the platform will broadcast two matches of the NFLthe American football league, worth an estimated $75 million each;
- the platform has already broadcast the boxing match between Mike Tyson e Jake Paul;
- from January 2025 Netflix will also broadcast the meetings of the WWE in several countries.
The future of sports streaming
The entrance of Netflix in the food market sports TV rightsand the possibility that it points to Serie Acould reshape the streaming landscape in Italy. Currently in Italy the TV rights of the Serie A football championship are worth 900 million euros per season, divided between DAZN and Sky.
Regarding the rights for the 2024-2029 cycle, Luigi De Siervo, CEO of Lega Serie A, declared: “We have gone further 27 different package optionsbecause this auction was the most difficult ever compared to the others. In a market which, as you know, is extorted by piracy, we have arrived at a law approved unanimously and we will be able to block the pirated transmission of images by IPTVs”.
The challenges for Netflix if it acquired the Serie A TV rights
There are many ambitions, but the acquisition of the rights of Serie A would lead to Netflix a series of technical challenges to be addressed to ensure quality broadcast of live sporting events:
- during the broadcast of the Tyson-Paul fight the platform received numerous reports of inefficienciescounting between 60 and 80 million simultaneous accesses;
- enhance the infrastructure to manage the high traffic typical of live sporting events;
- provide a full service with professionals not only for commentary and technical commentary, but also for pre- and post-match.
Geoffrey Baym, professor of media studies at Temple University, explained: “Netflix will need to invest in scalable infrastructure capable of managing sudden peaks in traffic. Their current system, optimized for on-demand content, requires significant improvements to effectively support live streaming.”.
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