Viacom18 grabs Serie A broadcast rights in India for next three seasons

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Bengaluru, August 20: Viacom18, one of India's fastest growing entertainment networks, has acquired the broadcast and digital rights for the Italian Serie A football league in the sub-continent for the next three seasons.

Matches will be available live across Voot, Viacom18's TV channels and Jio. Till now Sony Sports network had the exclusive rights for the telecast of the top flight of Italian football league.

The 2021-22 Serie A season starts on Saturday, (August 21) with champions Inter Milan hosting Genoa at 10pm IST.

SERIE A FIXTURES

It may be recalled that, MTV, which is the flagship youth-brand of Viacom18, had bagged the exclusive rights of La Liga to the Indian sub-continent for the next three years.

The top tier of Spanish football was earlier available for the Indian audience only on on the official La Liga Facebook page.

Viacom18 Digital Ventures Chief Operating Officer Gourav Rakshit expresssed his delight at having grabbed Serie A rights, "One of the core propositions of our network is the promise of variety in content. Sports is a whitespace that we've been consciously experimenting with for some time now. Italian Serie A is one of the most exciting and competitive leagues in Europe and we're excited to bring it to our viewers across digital and broadcast platforms."

Ferzad Palia, Head - SVOD and International Business, Viacom18 Digital Ventures shared his views, "The league enjoys great affinity with football lovers in India. We're confident of growing the fan base through a slew of initiatives that are lined up."

Viacom18 has entered into a partnership with Infront, whom Serie A has appointed to manage its international media rights for all platforms across Europe, Asia, Oceania, sub-Saharan Africa and Americas.

Viacom18 has been steadily expanding its sports offerings with the network recently entering multi-year partnerships with Cricket's Abu Dhabi T10 League as well.

Amikam Kranz, Vice President Media Sales and Operations, Infront said, "This is the start of what we hope will be a positive relationship between Infront and Viacom18. Serie A already has a significant resonance with Indian football fans and this'll help us further grow the audience in the country. We believe this is the beginning of what we hope will be a promising future."

It has been another off-season of change in Italy, but Serie A returns and another intriguing campaign awaits.

Inter were champions last term, ending Juventus' run of nine straight Scudetti, but they have not been able to keep their title-winning side together.

Romelu Lukaku is gone, as is coach Antonio Conte, while Massimiliano Allegri has returned to Juve to tee up another tilt.

Inter will be slightly different this season and it is highly likely they will be slightly worse for it.

Unsurprisingly, Juventus with their talisman Cristiano Ronaldo leading upfront, are the closest challengers to Inter's crown.

However, it is not set to be a two-horse race, though, as Atalanta is also in the mix.