In a year where very few fans, if any, can attend sporting events worldwide due to the pandemic, broadcasting rights revenue will become more important and could mark a shift in how sports leagues make revenue. As a result of all this, I’ve decided to write an article on things that Serie A can do to improve their broadcasting rights revenue worldwide. So, here we go!
How Does Serie A’s Broadcasting Rights Revenue Compare to Other Leagues Worldwide?
When I was researching Serie A’s Broadcasting Rights Revenue over the 2019-2020 season compared to other sports leagues worldwide, I couldn’t find stats for that particular season. However, I did find Serie A’s 2019 broadcasting rights revenue compared to other sports leagues. According to statista, in 2019, Serie A earned US$ 1.51 billion, in broadcasting rights revenue worldwide. That was the seventh-highest compared to sports leagues worldwide and the fourth-highest compared to soccer leagues worldwide. The EPL, La Liga and the Bundesliga were the soccer leagues that surpassed Serie A’s broadcasting rights revenue in 2019. Now, stats are great and all. But, how can Serie A increase its broadcasting rights revenue? Here are things I believe Serie A can do to increase their broadcasting rights revenue!
1. Try to Make More Deals with Streaming Platforms
I would not say that broadcasting via tv is dying, by any means. However, for several years, there have been additional paid ways for fans to watch sports games in addition to traditional tv and radio. If Serie A wants to earn more broadcasting rights revenue they should look to reward more streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, and others the rights to broadcast their matches. Of course, that would be in addition to tv channels acquiring the rights to broadcast league fixtures, as the more mediums used to show live Serie A matches, the better. According to Football Italia, Serie A’s CEO, Luigi De Siervo, in September of 2020, said that Amazon and Netflix are interested in broadcasting Serie A matches on their platforms. If there are more recent developments on these streaming platforms acquiring rights to broadcast Serie A, be sure to let me know. Anyway, I hope Serie A utilizes more streaming platforms to further increase their broadcasting rights revenue in the future.
2. Promote the League’s Matches/Events in More Languages
This idea is not something that would solely help increase Serie A’s broadcasting rights revenue but would help increase revenue in various aspects for the league. I’ve been pushing for Serie A to promote the league further around the world in previous blog posts. Allowing Serie A broadcasts to be in various languages as well as promoting what happens within the league in different languages via social media more often, would be beneficial. A great example to follow for every Serie A club and even the league itself would be Roma’s Twitter accounts. Roma has Twitter accounts in English, Italian, Arabic, Indonesian, Spanish, Portuguese, Persian, Pidgin and Swahili. It would be beneficial to follow Roma’s lead, as it would attract more viewers to Serie A broadcasts around the world, which would probably incentivize more media companies/streaming platforms to buy the rights to show matches. Here are just some of the tweets from Roma’s English Twitter Account as an example:
3. Market Star Players in Better Ways Around the World
Say all you want about the quality of Serie A as a league. But, there’s no doubt there’s some top-class players in the league. Not just Ibrahimovic, Cristiano Ronaldo, Paulo Dybala and Matthijs De Ligt. Serie A should also be promoting other stars in the league as well. I feel as though promoting other starts in the league as well as the elite ones will allow the league to grow traction around the world, which will lead to more fans and more incentive for tv channels/streaming to broadcast the league, as they’ll get more viewers, which may lead to more ad revenue for broadcasters. This may sound tough as if it’d require more spending on marketing to execute this, but it’d be with it, in my view.
Let me know things that you think Serie A should do to increase their broadcasting rights revenue in the comments below. If you’d like to be featured in one of my articles or write any articles for this blog, be sure to reach out to me.
If you’d like to reach out to me further, my Twitter handle is @calciofanblogs1, my Instagram account is @calciofanblogs, and my Facebook Page is Calcio Fan Blogs. Additionally, if you’d like to reach out to me via email, my email address is calciofanblogs@gmail.com and/or connect with me on LinkedIn!
calciofanblogs 
One thing Serie A could do is try to get their rights on to more accessible platforms (if the companies are interested) such as free to air or like you said a big platform like Amazon or Netflix, so as to get more viewers and people interested. For example in the UK people are less likely to watch Serie A because it is on Premier Sports, which is a smaller pay per view TV station.
LikeLike
Good point! I agree. I’m all for various types of platform buying rights to Serie A so they can make more broadcasting rights revenue. As for accessibility, I agree it should be on platforms that you may have to pay for, but are at least accessible.
LikeLike