some examples to understand why the parts find an agreement so hard to reach... the ratio between expense and income for football highlights on RAI last season was 9/1 (yes,RAI payed 9 times what it collected through advertising) Juventus's paytv rights were sold to 60.000 fans; Piacenza's to 750. As a consequence,tele + virtually payed to the turinese club € 550 for every fan,whereas Piacenza fans came at € 7000+ each...despite the large difference in the tv contracts for the two clubs,all in favour of Juventus of course (FYI,an all-comprehensive tele + package - calcio,EPL,Liga,movies,american sports and more - came at less than € 500) Roma's and Parma's situations are similar (Parma attracts a mindboggling 2.500 fans to Stream) no wonder 98% of italians think RAI shouldn't yield the public money to serie A and serie B clubs
Why would the Lega even ask RAI for that type of money? Is it because RAI used to pay the Lega that type of money? or is it because there are RAI competitors who are willing to bite? I mean, at least the Lega didn't have the courage to ask RAI for NFL-type of money. That would probably make the expense/income ratio to 900/1 ....
Where does Rai get it's advertising revenue? Is this from the commercials at the beginning, middle, and end of the match? Perhaps its time for them to start running the small adverts in the upper left hand corner of the screen, ala ESPN.
we're taking highlights here,like ESPN SportsCenter live matches have plenty of in-game ads (hardly annoying though,thanks to the football knowledge of the directors the 7 seconds break are aired during deadballs situations,a much more agreeable compromise than US sports on US televisions)