DAZN emerges as favourite for Serie A rights

DAZN has emerged as the favourite to pick up the largest package of Serie A broadcast rights, reports claim.

According to sources cited by Reuters, the London-based streaming service, which already holds a package of rights, is the current frontrunner for the 2021-24 rights.

The rights sale has moved into its second phase after no parties met the league’s asking price of €1.15 billion. The report says that DAZN has offered around €850 million per season, while Sky has offered €750 million.

However, the report goes on to note that one senior official said that the price may not be the only criteria, with accessibility and growing the profile of the league also being of keen interest.

The league will convene on Monday to discuss the bids, but a decision is likely on the horizon. One source said that “we are not that far from the amount of the current agreements,” with the league said to be considering splitting the rights between the two players.

Still absent from this discussion is Amazon, which made initial overtures for the rights but could not come to an agreement with Serie A. The Seattle-based giant wanted to move around the staging of a number of matches in a manner which league CEO Luigi De Siervo said “would upset our strategy.”