Coronavirus: Sky Italia proposes to broadcast Juve - Inter free-to-air to avoid mass gatherings

The pay-TV operator Sky Italia has proposed to the Lega Serie A to broadcast the game counting for Matchday 26 of the 2019-20 Serie A TIM, Juventus - Inter Milan (behind closed doors) on its free-TV TV8 channel on Sunday 01/03/2020), in order to avoid mass gatherings in public places which could spread the epidemic of the coronavirus, according to the Italian press on 26/02/2020.

Five games of Matchday 26 of the Serie A TIM (see below) will be played behind closed doors due to the epidemic which has killed 10 people in Italy (as of 25/02/2020). RAI, the Italian public audiovisual group, and Mediaset, an Italian private, free television group, have also proposed to the Italian League that these games be broadcast free-to-air.

However, these requests are unlikely to succeed since Sky Italia and DAZN, the holder of the broadcasting rights, in Italy, to the Serie A TIM, for the 2018-2021 cycle, only hold these rights for pay-TV broadcasting, in accordance with the Melandri Law. An Italian government decree would therefore be required to authorize these exceptional broadcasts in the…