Serie A Opens New Tender For '18-21 TV Rights

Serie A Chair Gaetano Micciche said that the league kicked off a new bidding round for the rights to broadcast matches from '18-21 after a "last-ditch attempt by Spain's Mediapro to salvage a previous deal failed," according to Elvira Pollina of REUTERS. In February, Serie A accepted an offer by Mediapro for the rights to screen almost 400 games over the next three seasons at "just above" €1.05B ($1.23B). But the Italian league last month "annulled the contract signed with Mediapro after the Spanish group failed to present the necessary bank guarantees." Micciche said on Tuesday that guarantees eventually submitted by Mediapro had been deemed "unacceptable in several respects, both formal and quantitative." Serie A is "now due to start meetings with broadcasters interested in the rights," according to sources. A Mediapro spokesperson said that the group "would do everything possible to win the rights" in order to pursue its plan to set up a Serie A channel to sell to other media groups (REUTERS, 6/5).