Italian league seeks 100m euros for TV rights

The Italian football league on Monday put out to tender the rights to televise its games outside the country for the next two years, looking for at least 100 million euros.

Officials announced that bids were to be submitted by November 2 to the “Lega Calcio” for first and second division games covering the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 seasons.

The package on offer has 380 Serie A and 462 Serie B matches and includes for the first time a game at midday on Sunday targeted at Asian audiences.

The tender follows the sale of the rights to air the same matches inside Italy to Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Italia and Mediaset Premium, owned by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Speaking at the Sportel international sports rights meeting here, Lega Calcio officials said they hoped to find a single purchaser for all the international rights who would enjoy total control and maximum flexibility.

The successful bidder would be able to sell sub-licences country by country in line with the general conditions which include a minimum of two matches every week.

“Our priority is to improve the visibility of the Calcio throughout the world and then to improve revenues,” said Juventus director-general Jean-Claude Blanc, as officials set a minimum target of 100 million euros.

Italian league stars were out in force at the presentation and AC Milan’s Brazilian midfielder Ronaldinhi said: It’s the toughest league, physically and tactically.”

“It’s the league of the world champions,” added AC Milan administrator Adriano Galliani.

The Sportel meeting runs through to Thursday in this Mediterranean enclave.