Sports streaming heavyweight DAZN has secured exclusive rights in Spain to the next three seasons of Italian soccer’s top-tier Serie A.
The deal, running from the start of 2024-25 next month, through 2026-27, sees DAZN replace pay-TV’s Movistar Plus (owned by Telefonica) as the Spanish Serie A broadcaster.
The Italian league has been scrambling to complete its international broadcast portfolio before the new season gets underway on August 17, with this latest tie-up adding to recently unveiled extensions in the UK (TNT Sports) and US (CBS).
This deal also includes Serie A highlights, the Coppa Italia knockout competition, and the Italian Super Cup annual game.
DAZN Espana adds Serie A to a soccer portfolio that includes domestic coverage of LaLiga (jointly, alongside Movistar, until 2027) and England’s Premier League. In other sports, it also airs motorsport’s Formula 1 and MotoGP.
The broadcaster also holds joint rights domestically to Serie A, alongside Sky Italia, in a deal running through 2028-29.
Spanish players currently contracted to Serie A clubs include Pedro at Lazio, Monza’s Pablo Mari, and Álex Jiménez at AC Milan.
Serie A’s international rights tenders have been taking place since mid-2023, with the league having substantially changed its method for selling media rights across the next cycle.
Previously, the vast majority of rights were held by the Infront agency. Now, the league is carrying out a sizeable proportion of negotiations, in various markets, directly with broadcasters (although Infront is distributing rights across Asia-Pacific).