ESPN SIGNS EXCLUSIVE MULTI-YEAR U.S. RIGHTS AGREEMENT FOR ITALIAN FOOTBALL
• More than 340 Italian Serie A TIM matches per season will be streamed exclusively on ESPN+
• Serie A TIM Match of the Week to air in English and Spanish on ESPN Networks
• Cristiano Ronaldo will make his Serie A TIM debut with Juventus vs. Chievo, Aug. 18 on ESPN+
ESPN has reached an exclusive, multi-year rights agreement in the United States for Italy’s Serie A TIM, one of the world’s top soccer leagues. Beginning in 2018, more than 340 matches per season will be carried on ESPN+, the new multi-sport, direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service from The Walt Disney Company Direct-to-Consumer & International (DTCI) segment and ESPN.
ESPN+ will carry an average of nine matches live each week from August through May, while ESPN networks will televise a Serie A TIM Match of the Week -- close to 40 matches per season. Most telecasts will air on ESPN and ESPN2, and the Match of the Week will also be available in Spanish on ESPN Deportes. The 20-team Serie A TIM is home to some of global football’s most recognizable and storied clubs, including Juventus FC, AC Milan, AS Roma, FC Inter Milan and more.
Coverage of Serie A TIM will also feature year-round news and highlights content across ESPN platforms. Additionally, ESPN+ will exclusively feature one-hour season preview and review programs, a weekly preview and highlight shows and a Serie A TIM goals of the week program.
Coverage of the 2018-19 Serie A TIM season will begin Saturday, August 18, with the league’s opening match, ChievoVerona vs. Juventus, airing on ESPN+ (12 p.m. ET). Five-time Ballon d’Or Award winner Cristiano Ronaldo, will make his league debut for Juventus, winners of seven straight Serie A TIM titles. Before joining the club in July, Ronaldo scored a record 450 goals in 438 games in nine seasons with Spain’s Real Madrid, leading the club to four UEFA Champions League titles. His move to Juventus is considered one of the most impactful transfers in international soccer.
“We are extremely satisfied with the agreement signed with ESPN, which testifies the growing importance and the international recognition of our league – said Gaetano Miccichè, Lega Serie A President -. This agreement, together with those recently concluded, shows the value of both Serie A TIM and its champions, which will be appreciated by more than 90 million soccer fans and enthusiasts in the U.S. in the next years”.
“The addition of Italy’s Serie A TIM underscores our ambitious goal of making ESPN+ home to the world’s best soccer leagues – and an indispensable destination for fans of the sport in the United States,” said Burke Magnus, Executive Vice President, Programming and Scheduling. “With Ronaldo’s arrival to Serie A TIM, we anticipate even more interest and exposure for this property in the seasons ahead.”
Italy’s Serie A TIM, now in its 117th season, ranks among the top leagues in the world. Serie A TIM had 58 players on the just-concluded 2018 FIFA World Cup team rosters, which ranked fourth among all leagues.
Additional Serie A TIM highlights:
• Serie A TIM teams have won 12 European Cup (Champions League) titles – tied for second with England, behind Spain’s 18.
• Italian teams have played in 28 Champions League finals, behind only Spanish teams (29) for most appearances in European Cup finals.
• Six Serie A TIM players scored at least 25 goals per season over the last three years, more than any other top-five European league – Lazio’s Ciro Immobile (29) and Inter Milan’s Mauro Icardi (29) in 2017-18 season; AS Roma’s Edin Dzeko (29), S.S.C. Napoli Dries Mertens (28) and Torino’s Andrea Belotti (26) in 2016-17; S.S.C.’s Napoli Gonzalo Higuaín (36) in 2015-16.
• Italian Serie A TIM has had at least one Champions League semifinalist in three of the last four seasons. The other two leagues with the same record are Germany and Spain.
• Serie A TIM has an average of 2.72 goals per game, just below La Liga’s 2.75 among top-five European leagues.
About ESPN+
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Programming on ESPN+ includes hundreds of soccer matches a year, including MLS, UEFA Nations League, USL and more, as well as ESPN’s signature daily studio program ESPN FC. Additionally, fans get hundreds of MLB and NHL games, thousands of college sports events, exclusive Top Rank boxing, UFC (beginning in 2019), Grand Slam tennis, international and domestic rugby, cricket, new and exclusive documentary films and series, acclaimed studio shows and the full library of ESPN’s award-winning 30 for 30 films. Fans subscribe to ESPN+ for just $4.99 a month (or $49.99 per year) and cancel at any time.
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