No more Champions League on Mediaset

Mediaset in Italy will not be airing Champions League football, CEO Pier Silvio Berlusconi told attendees at a press conference organised by the company this week. 

Confirming news already revealed by on-screen presented Alberto Brandi at the conclusion of the 2023-24 season, Berlusconi said that the decision not to acquire rights reflected the fact that sport had become mostly a pay TV affair.

While he expects the lack of Champions League coverage to result is a reduced audience share, Berlusconi said that the willingness of pay TV operators (in Italy’s case, Sky) to pay large sums for sports rights was a sign of the weakness of the pay TV model, which increasingly relied on big event-based programming to maintain its subscriber base. 

MediaForEurope-owned Mediaset will continue to air the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana until 2027 under existing rights deals. 

Berlusconi told the press event that the group estimated that the group would achieve 6% advertising revenue growth for the first half of the year. 

He said that the market both in Italy and Spain had proved to be strong, and that MFE was outperforming the market.

The improvement in advertising looked likely to be achieved, said Berlusconi, despite the group’s lack of coverage of the upcoming European football championship.