Sky Italia wins Olympic double
Free rights will have to be sold on
The coup pulled off by Italy’s single satellite paybox gives Sky upcoming Olympics rights across all broadcasting platforms, including free-to-air TV, pay TV, Internet and mobile phone.
However, Sky Italia’s deal with the International Olympic Committee contains the key proviso that the paybox, which has some 4.5 million subs, must resell a comprehensive free-to-air package to a generalist web in order to ensure coverage of the events to all Italo TV auds.
“We share with the IOC the will and commitment to make the Olympic Games available on all platforms, granting Italians the possibility to view on free-to-air television comparable amounts of coverage to previous Olympic Games,” said Sky Italia CEO Tom Mockridge in a statement.
“We will immediately start discussions to identify the best free-to-air network partner to proceed with this project."
The most likely buyer will be pubcaster RAI, which historically has always aired the Olympics in Italy exclusive as part of its public service mandate.
While RAI’s top execs are feigning indifference about having to thrash out an Olympics deal with rival Sky rather than deal directly with the IOC, the mood among sportscasters at the pubcaster is instead bleak for fear they will inevitably miss out on some prime Olympic fare.
Sky and RAI both aired coverage of the 2006 Soccer World Cup. Despite the fact that RAI covered key games, the event was a big driver for the paybox because its coverage was more extensive and more exciting.
Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset is not thought to be very interested in the London Olympic Games because they take place during summer when advertising revenues drop.
