Milan, Italy / Monte Carlo, Monaco, 12 October 2009 – The Italian Lega Calcio, the governing body of Italy’s professional football leagues, and the international sports marketing company Infront Sports & Media have announced the details of the tender for the international media rights for Italy’s Serie A and B at a press conference at SPORTEL Monaco today.

Infront is the Lega’s exclusive advisor in the exploitation of the national and international media rights for all its properties, starting from the 2010/2011 season, for six seasons.

The international Tender covers two seasons – 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 – aligning in length with the domestic tenders conducted in July. It is a comprehensive package and platform neutral, providing the successful bidder with considerable scope to tailor packages to suit both traditional broadcasters and new media in all broadcast markets. It is a contrast from the last 10 years, when rights were marketed by a variety of distributors.

More than 840 matches included per season
The package offered includes all 380 Serie A and all 462 Serie B matches in each season. Also included are the Lega Calcio’s Serie A weekly magazine programming and pre-produced highlights for Serie A and Serie B. Footage, highlights and interviews generated around the matches are also included, along with archive rights for the current season and the preceding one.

The new Serie A playing schedule starting from 2010/2011 includes an additional kick-off time for a match on Sunday at 12.30pm (CET). This has been established to better address the needs of international broadcasters in different time zones.

The successful bidder will have to comply with minimum broadcast obligations on its sub-licensees, including the obligation to broadcast two Serie A matches per round, a weekly broadcast of the Lega Calcio magazine programme and promotional activities, such as trailers, in the week preceding each round.

Maurizio Beretta, President of Lega Calcio, said: “The tender process for Serie A – one of the world’s elite football leagues – is on schedule and ahead of expectations. After the success of the domestic sales, we believe that the model chosen for the international tender is the best one in the current market and economic situation. We expect significant competition for this valuable rights package. As a result, we believe that coverage of Italian football will reach record levels globally.”

Marco Bogarelli, Member of the Board of Directors of Infront and President of Infront Italy, said: “The international Lega Calcio Tender has been designed to provide a high degree of flexibility for bidders. The successful bidder will be able to tailor packages to suit market needs, with as many distribution options as possible. We believe that a centralised distribution strategy will work very well for Serie A, given the current state of the market for top international football content. Further segmentation might be considered after the first two seasons, depending on the results achieved.”

Full tender information available online
Lega Calcio invites bidders to submit their offers in writing by 2 November 2009 (12.00am). The full tender information is available on the website of Lega Calcio (www.lega-calcio.it).

Successful domestic tender
Lega Calcio has already achieved impressive early success with the exclusive domestic media rights packages for Serie A, with the bids of Sky Italia and R.T.I. S.p.A. (a Mediaset Group company) submitted in July, for the Platinum Live and the Gold Live packages respectively. These were comfortably ahead of the minimum levels required. Dahlia Television (formerly La 7), the digital terrestrial broadcaster, has been awarded the Silver Live package. The remaining packages will be assigned after additional negotiations in the upcoming weeks.

About Lega Calcio
Lega Calcio associates the 20 Serie A and the 22 Serie B clubs and organizes the most important Italian professional football competitions, such as Serie A and Serie B Championships, Italian National Cup (Coppa Italia), Italian Supercup and Primavera (Under 19) tournaments, totalling more than 1.400 official matches during a sports season.

Italy’s Serie A is one of the biggest and most popular football leagues in the world. From August to May, all Serie A clubs play each other twice (home and away), totalling 380 league matches. So far, Italian Clubs have been present at 25 out of the total of 52 UEFA Champions League finals. Globally, Italian clubs won 29 European Club Competitions and 18 players won the Ballon d’Or while playing for an Italian club.

During the season 2008/2009 more than 300 foreign players from 63 different countries played in Serie A.

About Infront Sports & Media – a renowned player in football
Infront Sports & Media, based in Zug, Switzerland, is an experienced international full service sports marketing company. Infront has 500 employees across 23 offices in 10 countries. Infront has an extensive football portfolio and great international expertise in this sport. It successfully delivered the global media rights sales and host broadcast of the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cup™. Today, Infront is involved in the distribution of the Asian media rights to the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cup™ (in a joint venture with Dentsu). The company’s dedicated host broadcast organisation Host Broadcast Services (HBS), is handling the host broadcast of the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cup™ and also contributes its expertise to UEFA Euro™ events. Infront is a partner of top European football leagues, including Italian's Lega Calcio and the French Football League (Ligue 1), where it handles the host broadcast for the first division until 2011/2012. It represents many national football associations in Europe, including the DFB in Germany and several clubs including SV Werder Bremen, FC Schalke 04, U.S. Città di Palermo, Cagliari Calcio and S.S. Lazio Rome.

For further information, please contact:

- Jörg Polzer - Manager, Communication & PR -Infront Sports & Media AG – Tel: +41-41-723 15 15 - press@infrontsports.com www.infrontsports.com
- Elena Morini - Press Office - Lega Calcio - Tel. +39-02-699 102 48 - stampa@lega-calcio.it - www.lega-calcio.it