Serie A stays with CBS one more year, plans U.S. bid after World Cup

Serie A's U.S. broadcasts stay on CBS Sports platforms for the 2026-27 season under a one-year option, not a new contract. Sports Business Journal's Alex Silverman reported in June that the Italian league and CBS exercised a mutual extension built into their 2024 renewal, covering 420 English-language matches, most of them on Paramount+. The money, according to SBJ's sources, is believed to be the same as before.

The league shopped the rights before settling on the extension, per SBJ, and intends to go back out after this summer's World Cup. That sequencing is the story. A one-year rollover moves the auction from one side of a World Cup to the other, and it costs neither party a long-term commitment.

For a content-acquisition executive at a streaming service, or the commercial lead at any league whose deal expires just ahead of a major tournament, the Serie A extension is a live example of an option year used as a scheduling tool. Whether it pays off depends on what U.S. buyers are willing to spend once the tournament is over. Nobody knows that number yet.

What CBS gets for the extra season

The extension covers every Serie A match, at least 20 Coppa Italia matches and every Supercoppa Italiana match, 420 games in all, with most of the inventory on Paramount+, according to SBJ. That is the package a buyer would be looking at when the rights come back around.

SBJ describes the extension as a mutual option, meaning both sides had to agree to trigger it. Timing is the key factor in SBJ's reporting: once this summer's World Cup is over, Serie A plans to put its U.S. rights up for bid again, and SBJ said that could let the league cash in on growing American interest in soccer.

The price moved a long way between 2021 and 2024

Serie A left ESPN for CBS ahead of the 2021-22 season on a three-year deal worth about $75M a year, according to SBJ. Streaming competition was at its peak at the time, and media companies chasing new subscribers were bidding hard for soccer rights. In the same period, ESPN signed La Liga to an eight-year U.S. deal worth about $175M a year, SBJ noted.

When the three-year deal ran out, the market for European soccer rights had softened, and SBJ's sources put the two-year 2024 renewal in the low eight figures. The 2026-27 extension is believed to carry the same economics. SBJ described the 2024 renewal as a significant financial haircut for the Italian league.

For anyone pricing a rights bid right now, the gap between 2021 and 2024 is the useful benchmark. It suggests how much of the 2021 figure was tied to subscriber acquisition and how much to the matches themselves. For the CFO who signs the check at a streaming service, the Serie A history raises a plain question: what is the same inventory worth when the buyer's objective changes.

No agency, and a competitor selling in the same window

Serie A sells its U.S. rights itself. La Liga, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 all use agency representation for the U.S. sale, according to SBJ, which makes Serie A the only one of the four without it. The Bundesliga's representation is Relevent Sports, under a 17-year partnership.

The Bundesliga is also in the market right now. Its ESPN deal has expired and it is selling English- and Spanish-language U.S. rights beginning with 2026-27, SBJ reported. Serie A, for its part, will return to market after the World Cup for the seasons that follow its CBS extension, according to SBJ.

The contrast gives a buyer a sharper question to ask before a first meeting. How a league is represented shapes who sits across the table and on what timeline: a buyer negotiating for Serie A is dealing with the league directly, while a buyer negotiating for Bundesliga rights is dealing with Relevent on a long-term mandate. Those are different conversations, even when the product on the table looks similar.

A Spanish-language gap and a post-World Cup calendar

Serie A's Spanish-language U.S. deal with Fox Deportes expired at the end of the 2025-26 season, per SBJ, and the report did not identify a replacement. The Bundesliga, by comparison, is selling its Spanish-language rights alongside English. For Serie A that leaves two open items heading into a post-World Cup sale: the English package CBS holds through 2026-27, and a Spanish package with no replacement reported as of SBJ's June story.

The league's American appeal, SBJ noted, gets help from U.S. men's national team players in Italy, with AC Milan's Christian Pulisic and Juventus' Weston McKennie named. That is a real asset in a World Cup year. It is also one the league does not fully control from season to season, and SBJ's report did not address how a player's departure would affect the next negotiation.

There is precedent for a rights holder testing the whole market and staying with CBS. In 2020, CNBC reported that the PGA Tour talked to traditional and digital players before renewing with incumbents CBS and NBC on a nine-year deal valued at about $700M a year, an increase of more than 70 percent on its prior agreement. Different sport, different era, and a different outcome: Serie A's market test produced a one-year extension at what SBJ's sources believe is flat money, with the real sale deferred.

With the summer tournament now behind it, the league's next step, by SBJ's June account, is a return to market. The CBS agreement expires at the end of the 2026-27 season. The Fox Deportes agreement already has.