Italians take control of Belgian football TV rights

The TV rights of Belgium’s top-level football league will fall into the hands of the Italian media company MP & Silva. The deal will see the Italian group control the rights for the next six years. Although it is still ucomfirmed how much Belgian clubs are set to profit from the agreement, 15 of Belgium’s 16 top-flight football clubs gave the ‘ok’ to give the rights to the Italians. Only Standard de Liège voted against the decision.

Early unofficial reports are suggesting the deal will see the clubs receive a total of 420 million euros until the end of the agreement in 2020, averaging 70 million euros a year. Even though the deal will see the clubs get richer and help enhance their teams on the field, it pales in comparison to the TV money that overflows into the English Premier League or Bundesliga in Germany.

The Italian group will now begin the process to selling the TV rights to various broadcasters. Negotiations have already begun with telecoms Belgacom and Telenet.