Sky Italia, Mediaset win Italy TV soccer rights

MILAN, July 28 (Reuters) - News Corp (NWSA.O) unit Sky Italia and Italy's Mediaset (MS.MI) have won rights to broadcast soccer matches in Italy's top league for the next two seasons, the Lega Calcio soccer association said on Tuesday.

Lega Calcio said in a statement it had assigned to Sky Italia a package to broadcast matches of all Serie A clubs and to Mediaset a package covering 12 top clubs.

The association did not disclose price details. It was aiming to raise at least 1.148 billion euros ($1.64 billion) from the package it sold to Sky and 435 million euros from one it sold to Mediaset, according to the tender document.

In addition to Sky Italia and Mediaset, three other media companies had placed bids before a Monday deadline. A total of six packages are for sale. [ID:nLR258499]

Lega Calcio has six days left to decide whether to tender or sell through a private negotiation any unassigned packages. the rights regarding the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons.

On Friday, the Italian antitrust authority opened a probe into the lucrative TV rights sale because it suspected it was set up to benefit incumbent pay-TV operators and not viewers. [ID:nLO347118]

The Serie A league in Italy includes global giants such as Juventus (JUVE.MI), Inter Milan and its city rival AC Milan. Revenues at clubs are driven mainly by TV rights and matches are watched by millions. ($1=.7004 Euro) (Reporting by Danilo Masoni, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)