BT Sport holds bulk of rights, with Prime Video getting weekly match and BBC showing highlights
BT Sport, Prime Video, and the BBC have confirmed that they will air the men’s UEFA Champions League for the 2024 until 2027 rights cycle.
Broadcast Sport reported that the three broadcasters were expected to sign a deal yesterday.
BT Sport will air the bulk of the live matches and highlights with 533 of the 550 live fixtures, but loses the exclusivity it has held since 2015. It also has the rights to in-match clips. The broadcaster has confirmed it will pay c. £305 million per annum for the rights and BT expects to pay a deposit of c. £61 million in July 2022.
BT Sport’s rights are slightly complicated as it is forming joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery, and expected to merge with Eurosport. Once formed, the joint venture will pay the rights costs of c. £305 million per annum less the deposit, with £92 million paid in August 2024 followed by £153 million paid every February and August until February 2027.
The Europa League and Europa Conference League will continue to be shown exclusively by BT Sport.
Meanwhile, Prime Video will show the Champions League for the first time, getting first pick for Tuesday night matches and 17 matches overall.
The BBC is also showing the men’s competition for the first time, with it to be broadcast on linear, iPlayer, and the BBC Sport website from 10pm on Wednesdays. The deal also includes highlights of the final, with details of how it will be shown to be confirmed.
Overall, the deal is thought to be a 20% increase on the current deal, which is for €1.4 billion (£1.2 billion). This could take the rights cycle to around €1.7 billion (£1.45 billion).
The Champions League is expanding from 32 to 36 teams from 2024, with the number of games growing from 125 to 189. Teams will play each other in a “Swiss Model”, which means they are all in a single league table and will earn points from playing eight matches against opponents of different ranks to decidewho qualifies for the knockout rounds.
The top eight will go through to the knockout stage, while those from ninth to 24th will compete in a two-legged play-off to progress. The bottom 12 teams will drop out and not enter the Europa League.
The women’s Champions League is currently shown by DAZN and free-to-air on YouTube.
BBC director of sport Barbara Slater said: “We are simply thrilled to have won these rights.
“Our reach and ability to bring people together is unrivalled and we couldn’t be more delighted that Uefa have recognised the value in our ability to bring the Uefa Champions League to the widest possible audience across the UK.
“This package of highlights and digital content will allow football fans to follow the Uefa Champions League, wherever and however they like. The UEFA Champions League is a wonderful addition to our portfolio of football output on the BBC and we can’t wait to get started in 2024.”
Guy-Laurent Epstein, UEFA marketing director, added: “We are thrilled to be partnering with the BBC in the UK for 2024-27, as it broadcasts Uefa Champions League Wednesday highlights for the very first time.
“The BBC brand is synonymous with premium sport, and it will apply its extensive expertise in delivering wide-reaching Uefa Champions League coverage for fans in the market.”
He added on BT Sport’s acquisition: “We are delighted to be extending our partnership with BT until 2027. BT has been a long-standing UEFA club competition partner since 2015, where it has applied industry leading broadcast expertise to European club football. Throughout 2024-27 BT will broadcast more live matches than ever before, which will be supplemented by its exceptional array of original programming.”
Marc Allera, chief executive of BT’s Consumer Division, said “BT Sport continues to be the home of the UEFA Club Competitions until 2027 and we are extremely proud to have the privilege of twelve years of broadcasting one of the most exciting competitions in the world. It is fantastic news for our viewers that from 2024 we will be able to show more games than ever before live and exclusive on BT Sport.”
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