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Index – Sports – Network4 CEO: We owe enough and must find a solution to the Serie A situation

Broadcast United News Desk
Index – Sports – Network4 CEO: We owe enough and must find a solution to the Serie A situation

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As we reportedSport TV has been broadcasting Serie A for the past three seasons, but the channel did not buy back the rights to the Italian football’s top flight after the contract expired, leaving it uncertain how football fans can follow the series.

However According to the index The problem has been solved, as Network4 Media Group has acquired the broadcasting rights for the Italian league games, and fans will be able to watch the first round of Serie A games on the Arena4 and Match4 platforms this weekend.

Network4 CEO András Borsány-Gyenes confirmed the news to this newspaper, before explaining that they must decide soon whether they want the broadcasting rights for the championship, but they believe it is their responsibility to satisfy the wishes of sports fans.

We acted in this case because we felt that there was an audience for Italian football in Hungary and we, as producers of various TV channels, had a responsibility to find some kind of solution for them. That was the motivation for our decision.

Andras Borsani-Ginez said.

“It’s unusual that so soon before a tournament it’s not clear who will broadcast it,” the CEO added. He said Network4 always aims to acquire the rights to the most important tournaments in the long term, so for example they signed a contract for the rights to the Bundesliga, Germany’s top football league, until 2029.

Borsány-Gynes explained that they have now included the Italian league in their programming, but they are open to cooperation because their current offer is very rich and they also broadcast the top football leagues in England, Scotland and Germany, as well as the rights to the NFL on Network 4. In his opinion, it is a very absurd situation that among so many sports channels, Serie A should not be broadcast.

Of course, you can think about what the order of power is after the Premier League and look at the other three major leagues, but I feel that there are a lot of fans in Serie A. So there is a real demand for Italian football, and we are a company that cares about our audience, so we try to meet that demand.

Borsány-Gyenes said.

The general manager explained that they saw emotions running high due to things related to Serie A and that’s why they took action, but he didn’t have a full idea of ​​what might be going on in the background and therefore the Italian league “had no channels left”.

“In the past, all four Grand Slams were broadcast by Sports TV, so not having one of them broadcast on the channel could lead to a particularly strange situation,” Borsani-Ginez assessed the situation before explaining that the channel does not broadcast any events. The person who previously broadcast a given tournament necessarily has a pre-contract or pre-purchase right, as it depends on the agreement, but such contracts are usually determined a year or at least a few months before the expiration of the previous agreement.

However, he did not answer questions about what kind of contract they had signed for the Serie A rights.

We offer a quick solution. Let’s just say that people won’t be without Italian football at the weekend.

– said the CEO, who added that due to the current situation they had to work very quickly in recent days, but in the foreseeable future they will be able to give more detailed answers on the future of football broadcasting in Italy.

Andras Borsani-Ginez stressed: “In a precarious situation, we act in the interests of our audience and we hope that the current solution will bring some kind of guarantee.”

Italian football is not completely new to Network4, as several of their colleagues have previously broadcast Serie A on other channels.

Serie A first round matches on Saturday:

  • 18.30 Genoa – Inter Milan
  • 6.30pm Parma-Florence
  • 20.45 AC Milan–Turin
  • 8.45pm Empoli – Monza