The rights are for the Indian sub-continent for the next three seasons.
This comes close on the heels of the company acquiring rights for Spanish football league La Liga, ATP Masters (tennis) and Abu Dhabi T10 (cricket).
Like other properties, Serie A, which kicks off on Saturday, August 21, will also be available live across Voot, Viacom18’s linear TV channels and Jio.
Viacom18, the joint venture with US entertainment conglomerate ViacomCBS, has a clutch of entertainment channels in Hindi, English and regional languages, as well as a content studio and a video streaming service, Voot.
However, the only missing piece in Ambani’s entertainment play is a dedicated sports network, which many experts feel might change soon.
“If one looks at the way
has expanded, they have a clear pattern. In sports, they are currently experimenting,” said a senior media executive, who did not wish to be named. “By the time rights for big properties like the Indian Premier League, the ICC tournaments and the BCCI open up next year, RIL will have a good sense of sports viewership and advertisers’ response.”
Sports marketing experts point out that Ambani has the “money and the might” to go into sports, and one just must connect the dots.
“The writing is on the wall. RIL has a controlling stake in the Indian Super League (ISL), they own Mumbai Indians, the most successful franchise of the IPL, and have made serious investments in development of sports at the grassroots level. Nita Ambani was elected as an individual member of the International Olympic Committee,” said managing partner at a sports marketing firm. “It will make sense for them to have a dedicated sports network, but once they have enough rights to sustain a 24-hour cycle 7-days a week throughout the year. That might happen soon.”
Meanwhile, Viacom18 insiders say that the call of launching a sports network will be taken at the Ambani group’s flagship RIL, “if at all,” and even the investments for properties will have to come from the “parent company.”
However, executives at the company have downplayed the significance of the rights acquisition, insisting there were no plans to launch a sports channel, as of now.
“At Viacom18, we are looking at multiple properties and evaluating them on a case-to-case basis. For us, the financials should make sense,” said Ferzad Palia, head – SVoD and International Business, Viacom18 Digital Ventures.
Palia told ET that for Viacom18, with its network strength of youth, kids and general entertainment channels, there is a lot of opportunity to build brands and fandom for sports properties.
“We have the right audience and we have built big brands. We can provide league owners and partners the full network support and build fandom for their property. With Viacom18, Serie A will get a reach of over 200 million followers across our platforms,” he said.
The Italian Serie A was voted as the World’s Best Nation League in 2020 by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics. Top four teams from the league qualify for the group stages of the Champion league, while the fifth ranked team qualify for Europa League group stage.
The league also features some of football’s mega stars including Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Alexis Sanchez, Paulo Dybala. Also, many star players from the Euro 2020 winning Italian squad play in Serie A.
In the past, Viacom18 has also aired Nidahas Trophy, the tri-nation tournament between India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, exhibition T20 cricket competition Road Safety World Series, as well as poker and fight leagues.
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