As tradition dictates, public broadcaster RAI will have the exclusive Italian TV rights to broadcast the Olympic Games taking place in Sydney this September.

However, this time around the Italian ‘pubcaster’ has opted to share the rights with pay-TV operator Tele+, in which it holds a 1 per cent stake. Although RAI will get a certain financial compensation – at the time RAI paid L97 billion (E50.10m) for the exclusive rights – the deal also includes an exchange of other rights.

Tele+ has promised extensive coverage of all the football, basketball, volleyball, tennis and boxing matches, with RAI broadcasting only those matches it judges most interesting. Tele+ will also air a nightly two-hour magazine with the highlights of the day’s events. The Olympic coverage will be carried on premium channels Tele+Bianco and Tele+Nero, meaning that it will be offered free-of-charge both to analogue (1,540,000) and digital (1,100,000) subscribers. For its part, RAI plans to air 20 hours a day live coverage on its third TV channel.