Stream has reached an agreement with leading Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset for the digital TV platform to acquire key Italian pay-TV rights to next season’s Champions League football tournament. The deal, announced on June 7, will give Stream exclusive rights to live broadcasts of most matches, excluding the semi-finals and final as well as the two matches a week (on Tuesdays and Wednesdays), which will air terrestrially on Mediaset.

Mediaset holds all Italian rights through to the year 2003. The Mediaset-Stream deal is worth around L90 billion (E46.48 million) and is valid for the 2000-2001 season, with a renewal option for a further one-year period. Since it launched its first division football service last June, Stream subscribers have risen from 150,000 to about 500,000. Tele+, which holds pay-TV rights to about 60 per cent of Italian football, has a subscriber base of more than 1.5 million.