On Thursday, the Italian Football League agreed to Abu Dhabi Media's offer to broadcast Serie A matches in the Middle East and North Africa. Abu Dhabi Media, a public entity from the UAE, announced that it has secured the rights for the next three seasons for a total amount of at least 79 million dollars (75 million euros).
A spokesperson for the Italian League stated that any additional revenue related to the number of subscribers that Italian football will attract on the platform could be added to this guaranteed minimum income.
Due to a lack of satisfactory bids last year, the Italian League developed its own Arabic-language YouTube channel to provide free matches, showing five matches daily during the first part of the season and all ten matches starting from February. Last year's bidding requests were unfruitful, particularly impacted by the absence of a new bid from Qatar's beIN Sports, which held the rights until that point.
beIN Sports was the exclusive rights holder for broadcasting Serie A in this region until the season before last but did not renew the contract due to a legal dispute with the Saudi group, which the sports network accuses of supporting an illegal satellite broadcasting system known as "beoutQ."
In June 2020, beIN criticized the partnership between the Italian League and Saudi Arabia, which hosted the Italian Super Cup in 2018 and 2019 after the 2014 and 2016 editions were held in the Qatari capital, Doha. According to the specialized site "Calcio Finanza," beIN Sports paid around 112 million euros annually for the rights to broadcast Serie A until the season before last, amounting to about one-third of the total income generated from broadcasting Serie A matches outside Italy.
