The pandemic has wreaked havoc on the championships and programme schedules of pay TV. Now they are arguing over payment of instalments for television rights.
The Italian football clubs are preparing to sue. At the end of April 2020 they issued invoices to Sky, Dazn and Img for a total of 220 million euros. If unpaid, their next move will be to file an injunction of payment. However, following a suggestion proposed by Sky, in order to give the clubs time to organise themselves, the TV stations are asking for an immediate discount on this season or the next.
BeIN Sports and Canal+ in France refused to pay their last instalments (42 million and 110 million respectively) for coverage of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2.
Since then, Canal+ has come to an agreement in order to avoid causing the clubs problems with liquidity.
Discovery, in Germany, is trying to terminate their contract with Bundesliga.
In Great Britain, DAZN has asked Premier League to defer rights payments.
Altice has suspended payments in Portugal.
In Brazil, Federcalcio di San Paolo sent a letter to Globo, declaring that they will not pay the last instalment for broadcasting rights of the championship, which has been suspended due to the pandemic.