Sky Italia is understood to have entered into an agreement to rent five DTT channels from Telecom Italia.
Quoting two people with direct knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg reports that the deal was secured at the end of last month, ahead of an upcoming decision on the auction of Serie A football broadcasting rights for the period 2015-18.
It adds that as a result Sky Italia will be able to start broadcasting the channels from this October to June next year.
Bloomberg gives no figure on the size of the deal, which has come as Sky Italia competes with Mediaset for the Serie A rights.
The result of the auction, due to be announced this coming week, could according to Bloomberg’s sources see Sky Italia win packages for 248 matches played by eight top teams for around €775 million for one season.
Meanwhile, Mediaset may secure 132 matches involving 12 teams for some €300 million.
Sky Italia could effectively reach 95% of Italian homes via the DTT channels.
