MILAN, April 2 (Reuters) – Serie A said on Friday it has awarded sports marketing agency Infront the management of most of its international broadcasting rights for the next three seasons in a deal worth 417 million euros ($490.39 million).

Owned by China’s Wanda Sport Group, Infront will manage Serie A’s global media rights for all platforms, excluding the United States, the Middle East and North Africa regions.

“Thanks to its established network of media distribution experts, Infront will enable Serie A to broaden the relationship with regional and national partners, accelerating the process of the league’s internationalisation,” Infront said in a statement.

Last week Serie A awarded CBS Sports exclusive rights to screen Italy’s top flight matches in the United States for the next three seasons for 170 million euros.

The Italian soccer league is also tendering its broadcast rights in the Middle East and North Africa in a separate sale process.

However, Serie A would likely face a drop in its revenue from international licenses as under a current three-year agreement, the Italian league raised some 1 billion euro from U.S. media agency IMG, in a deal including the Italian Cup.

($1 = 0.8503 euros) (Reporting by Elvira Pollina, editing by Pritha Sarkar)

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