In Canada, there are multiple reasons why Serie A gets 0 traction:
1) English language
2) Faster nature of English football
3) Marketing Success - basically everyone here thinks the EPL is the best.
4) Television Coverage
5) Many Italians will watch on RAI/ in Italian
Some are natural disadvantages but 4 isn't. 1 is Serie A shooting itself in the foot. Basically, this is the TV coverage of the leagues (including the domestic leagues):
1) EPL - Multiple networks owned by the 2 largest integrated telecom companies in Canada. TSN owned by Bell has 5 sports networks and Sportsnet owned by Rogers also owns 5 networks. Basically any EPL game is viewable on a given week on TV on basic TV package.
2) Bundesliga - Multiple Networks owned by the 2nd largest integrated telecom in Canada, Rogers. This results in the majority of games being viewable on basic TV package.
3) MLS - TSN - all major games are typically viewable viewable.
4) La Liga - BeIN Sports, owned by Al Jazeera, which has 2 PREMIUM (ie: pay only, and need to order them specifically) networks on TV, BeIN and BeIN ESPANOL (Why there is a Spanish language station in Canada, I do not know...I understand in the US, but in Canada, it makes very little sense, and it is just a lack of focus on Canada by BeIN. Basically, on a given week you can watch both the Barcelona and Real Madrid games unless Africa Cup of Nations is on. Generally, with respect to League games, nothing will be prioritized over Barcelona & Real Madrid. Also, the game will be shown on both the spanish and english networks.
5) Ligue 1 - BeIN sports, also carried on the same two networks. Will be prioritized depending on the teams playing.
6) Serie A - BeIN sports, also carried on the same two networks, one in Spanish. Generally Juventus is prioritized after Barcelona & Real.
7) Championship - Yep, BeIN - two networks, one in Spanish.
As you can imagine, the result is that:
1) Barcelona/ Real Madrid is always prioritized, and played on both networks
2) If these two are not playing: Juventus usually plays next. I have seen Napoli-Juventus get prioritized behind the likes of Barcelona-Granada.
3) Other Serie A games, La Liga games, Ligue 1 and even freakin' Championship games are prioritized, likely according to show ****head who knows nothing about the Canadian market. Good luck watching Roma, Fiorentina, Lazio, Inter, Milan on a given weekend if you can't even watch Juventus on many weekends.
That is down to Serie A being stupid in TV rights negotiations. It's great to take the biggest payout, but not when you get no distribution. The Bundesliga is getting an insane amount of distribution on BASIC TELEVISION over multiple cable networks and if ratings are good, it will give them much more negotiating leverage in the future. Serie A on the other hand, is usually not even shown on the main networks on the basic package, instead being shown sparingly on a network that is only purchased for like $15 per month by a small % of the population.
Who knows if Serie A would be popular in Canada if things were different, but with this horse**** strategy, the league isn't even giving itself a chance.
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