By Stuart Thomson
Lega Serie A president Lorenzo Casini and CEO Luigi de Siervo played down reports that the league is mulling a partial or complete acquisition of Sky Italia at a press conference following their meeting yesterday.
La Stampa had earlier reported that De Siervo would present a plan for a possible acquisition of Sky’s sports division or the acquisition of the overall company in partnership with outside investors.
Following the Serie A clubs’ meeting, Casini said there was “nothing concrete” to report.
He said that there had been discussions in the past and currently about the Lega Serie A channel producing coverage of the league competition itself and that an acquisition could be part of that discussion, but that there was nothing concrete planned.
De Siervo meanwhile said that before any acquisition could be discussed seriously, the Lega Serie A teams would have to evaluate whether it made sense to partner with financial investors.
a bid could be for the acquisition of Sky’s sports division only, or for all of Sky in partnership with a third party, with a number of banks expressing interest in participating, including JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Barclays.
Comcast’s willingness to sell its Italian operation remains an unknown quantity, given that the US company has invested significantly in its Italian operation in recent years.
The cable and media giant has reportedly considered a sale of its underperforming German operation, which lacks the broadband and mobile phone base of Sky in the UK.
However, in Italy Sky has invested in developing a broadband base with the launch of Sky Wifi in 2020. The company also recently launched Sky Glass, Sky and Comcast’s integrated TV offering, in the Italian market.
Sky faces competition in Italy in the sports arena from DAZN, which currently holds key Serie A rights but which also faces challenges on a number of fronts.
The current rights deals for Serie A are set to expire next year.
