2018 World Cup: Mediaset acquires exclusive TV rights in Italy (free-to-air)

Mediaset, an Italian free and pay-TV group, has acquired, exclusively, the TV rights in Italy for the 64 games of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, on 21/12/2017. All the games will be broadcast on free-TV channels of the Italian group (Canale 5, Italia 1, and Rete 4).

According to Italian press, Mediaset will pay €78m for exclusivity of these TV rights to the 2018 World Cup, to which the Italian national team will not participate (a first since 1958), following its elimination in play-offs of the UEFA zone against Sweden (1-0 on aggregate).

This is also the first time since 1958 that a World Cup will not be broadcast on the Italian public television group Rai. Rai broadcast 25 games, exclusively on free-TV, of the 2014 World Cup, while pay-TV group Sky Italia had acquired all 64 matches for pay-TV.

The two Italian groups together paid €180m for the acquisition of these rights, according to Italian press, a difference of more than €100m for FIFA, for the Italian market between the 2014 and 2018 World Cups.

• These negotiations were conducted via the media rights and marketing agency…