List of UEFA Champions League broadcasters explained

This is a list of television broadcasters which provide coverage of the UEFA Champions League, European football's top level continental competition, as well as the UEFA Super Cup. Starting from the 2021–22 season, during the group stage, two matches will kick off at 18:45 CET (instead of 18:55 previously) and the rest of the matches, including knockout stage and the final will continue to kick-off at 21:00 CET.[1]

UEFA sells the broadcast rights in a three-season basis and various packages are available for bidders, with UEFA weighing balance between free and pay television under the UEFA and European Union (EU) agreement. While balancing between free and pay television, if the rights do not sell within "sales windows", the rights may be sold on an individual basis to pay-per-view television broadcasters.[2]

UEFA only markets the commercial rights to the last qualifying phase, group stages and final phase of the Champions League. The national associations, their affiliated organisations or clubs market thecommercial rights to the first three qualifying phases.

The 2009 final attracted an audience of 109 million people around the world, a record number for the competition, and replaced the Super Bowl as the most-watched annual sports event.[3]

Background

Joint selling of television rights in sports was a common practice before the Commission even started to investigate that practice for the first time.

The European Commission raised objections against the joint sale of media rights in 1998 and on 1 February 1999, initied its investigation into the joint selling by UEFA of the TV rights because UEFA notified the arrangement seeking for negative clearance, or respectively an exemption decision Art. 101 TFEU of the central marketing of the commercial rights to the UEFA Champions League.[4]

The Commission issued a statement of objections on 18 July 2001, which stated that the notified joint selling arrangement relating to the sale of the television broadcasting rights infringed Article 81 of the Treaty and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement and should be improved to ensure that european sports fans can benefit from a wider coverage.

Main concerns raised by the European Commission do not relate to the central marketing of rights as such by UEFA, but rather to the policy of joint selling of free-TV and pay-TV rights combined with exclusivity for a period lasting several years had highly anticompetitive effect by foreclosing television markets and ultimately limiting television coverage of those events for consumers, an important effect on the structure of the TV broadcasting markets since football is in most countries the driving force not only for the development of pay-TV services but it is also an essential programme item for free TV broadcasters.[5]

UEFA sold all the TV rights to the whole tournament in one exclusive package to one broadcaster per country. Because the winner got it all, there was a fierce competition for the TV rights whose increasing value can only be afforded by large broadcasters. This may increase media concentration and hamper competition between broadcasters. If one broadcaster holds all relevant football TV rights in a country, it will become extremely difficult for competing broadcasters to establish themselves in that market. If different packages of rights were sold, several broadcasters would be able to compete for the rights, including smaller, regional or thematic channels, among others.

UEFA's sublicensing policy was also insufficient, because was rather exclusive and allowed only one other broadcaster to show the UEFA Champions League matches that the main broadcaster itself was not showing. Thus a maximum of two broadcasters per country could televise the UEFA Champions League to the exclusion of all other broadcasters in that country, who could not even show highlights.

Other of the drawbacks was that some of the rights, such as live footage, internet and UMTS, were unexploited. The clubs and possibly other players such as regional television channels or small companies, internet content providers and UMTS operators would be happy to exploit these rights.[6]

The Commission, therefore, called on UEFA to submit constructive proposals in order to guarantee open access to television coverage of football.

UEFA replied to the statement of objections on 16 November 2001. On 8 January 2002 UEFA submitted an outline of a new joint selling arrangement. Subsequently, on 12 March 2002, UEFA presented a rights segmentation table for the exploitation of not only the TV broadcasting rights but, also, all the other media rights of the UEFA Champions League.[4]

On 13 May 2002, UEFA send to the Commission a proposed settlement and may be summarised as follows:[7]

After many discussions and negotiations between the parties, new selling arrangements were put forward by UEFA to the Commission, which were acceptable, and the matter was settled amicably (so-called "soft law") in December 2003. The new arrangements came into force as from the 2003/2004 football season. There was an improvement on the preliminarycompromise reached with the Commission on August 2002. It particularly agreed that football clubs would not be prevented from selling live rights to free-TV broadcasters where there is no reasonable offer from any pay-TV broadcaster.

Effects of the law

The effects have been positive: The number of licensees has grown from 14 to 22 directly after the decision in 2003 and to over 30 at present.

In the majority of the EU countries, there is more than one operator holding a direct license and broadcasting the UEFA Champions League live on television and in most cases one of the operators broadcasts on free to air. Since 2003, the number of games of the UEFA Champions League that are broadcast has increased to full coverage of all matches, unlike before the decision, when only a small number of games were broadcast. The Internet, was promoted by the Commission and has become a new distribution channel on the live broadcasting market and thereby created a new way of market entry, to prevent foreclosure on the upstream and downstream market and offer consumers a variety of product choice on the downstream market. This has radically changed the market in recent years, when it has been announced that several internet-streaming operators, not broadcasting through terrestrial, cable or satellite at all, have acquired a large amount of broadcasting rights of UEFA Champions League on an exclusive basis in various countries.[8]

Broadcasters

2024–2027

TerritoryRights holderRef
Albania[9] [10]
AndorraMovistar Plus+
AustraliaStan Sport[11]
Austria[12] [13] [14]
Belgium[15] [16] [17] [18]
Bosnia and HerzegovinaArena Sport[19]
Brazil[20] [21]
Bulgaria[22] [23]
CanadaDAZN[24] [25]
CaribbeanRush Sports[26]
ChinaiQIYI[27]
Croatia
CyprusCYTA[28]
Czech RepublicNova Sport[29]
DenmarkViaplay[30] [31]
Dominican RepublicAntena 7[32]
FinlandMTV[33]
France[34] [35]
Germany[36] [37]
Greece[38] [39]
Hong KongbeIN Sports[40]
Hungary[41] [42]
Iceland
Indian subcontinentSony Sports Network[43]
Ireland[44] [45] [46]
Italy[47] [48]
Japan[49]
Kosovo
Liechtenstein
LuxembourgProximus
MaltaPBS
Mexico[50]
MENA[51]
MoldovaJurnal TV [52]
MontenegroArena Sport
MyanmarCanal+[53]
NetherlandsZiggo Sport[54]
New ZealandDAZN[55]
North MacedoniaArena Sport
NorwayTV 2[56]
Pakistantapmad[57]
PolandCanal+[58]
Portugal[59]
Romania[60] [61]
RussiaOkko[62]
San Marino
SerbiaArena Sport
SlovakiaNova Sport
Slovenia[63] [64]
South KoreaSPOTV[65]
Southeast AsiabeIN Sports[66]
SpainMovistar Plus+[67]
Sub-Saharan Africa[68] [69]
SwedenViaplay
Switzerland[70] [71]
TaiwanELTA[72]
TurkeyTRT[73]
UkraineMegogo[74]
United Kingdom[75] [76] [77]
United States[78] [79]
Vietnam[80] [81]

Notes

Notes and References

  1. Format change for 2020/21 UEFA Nations League. UEFA. 24 September 2019.
  2. Web site: TV rights agreement. UEFA. 27 November 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20030408133417/http://www.uefa.com/newsfiles/25624.pdf. 8 April 2003. live.
  3. News: Champions League final tops Super Bowl for TV market. 27 November 2011. BBC Sport. 31 January 2010.
  4. Web site: Commission Decision of 23 July 2003 relating to a proceeding pursuant to Article 81 of the EC Treaty and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement (COMP/C.2-37.398 — Joint selling of the commercial rights of the UEFA Champions League). 24 July 2003.
  5. Web site: Collective sale of sports television rights in the European Union: competition law aspects. 13 February 2013.
  6. Web site: Collective sale of sports television rights in the European Union: competition law aspects. 26 August 2003.
  7. News: Commission welcomes UEFA's new policy for selling the media rights to the Champions League. 3 June 2002.
  8. News: EU competition law perspective and a comparative analysis of the impact of Regulation 1/2003. 3 September 2018.
  9. News: "Champions" në Tring deri në 2027, kompetiocioni më prestigjioz në plaftormën më të dashur të shqiptarëve. 9 February 2024. Vizion Plus. 9 February 2024.
  10. News: Sot kthehet Champions në “Vizion Plus”, Dinamo Kyiv sfidon Salzburgun, takimet e tjera transmetohen në Tring. 21 August 2024. Vizion Plus. 21 August 2024.
  11. News: Brunsdon. Simon. Aussie football fans rejoice as Stan Sport announces UEFA broadcast extension. 10 May 2023. nine.com.au. 10 May 2023.
  12. News: CANAL+ SICHERT SICH RECHTE DER UEFA-KLUBWETTBEWERBE IN ÖSTERREICH. 8 December 2022. Canal Plus. 8 December 2022.
  13. News: In Österreich bleibt Sky die Heimat der Königsklasse: Sky Österreich sichert sich umfassendes Rechtepaket für die UEFA Champions League bis 2026/27. 9 December 2022. Sky Sport. 9 December 2022.
  14. News: Canal+ scores UEFA rights. 8 December 2022. 8 December 2022.
  15. News: Excellente nouvelle pour les fans de foot: les grands frissons de la UEFA Champions League sur RTL jusqu'en 2027. fr. 28 November 2023. RTL Belgium. Brussels. 28 November 2023.
  16. VTM haalt rechten binnen voor topwedstrijden UEFA Champions League. nl. 28 November 2023. DPG Media. Antwerp. 28 November 2023.
  17. Proximus remains the reference in Belgium for fans of the UEFA Champions League until 2027. 1 December 2023. Proximus Group. Brussels. 1 December 2023.
  18. Telenet voegt Nederlandstalige UEFA Champions League-rechten toe aan Play Sports. 1 December 2023. nl. Telenet Group. Mechelen. 1 December 2023.
  19. News: UEFA CLUB COMPETITION MEDIA RIGHTS SALES IN THE BALKANS DELIVER STRONG RESULTS. 6 October 2022. Team Marketing. 6 October 2022.
  20. News: SBT renova direitos de transmissão da UEFA Champions League até 2027. 10 January 2024. SBT. 9 January 2024.
  21. News: TNT Sports e SBT seguem com a transmissão da Champions League no Brasil até 2027. 6 December 2023. 29 November 2023.
  22. News: bTV Media Group придоби правата за излъчване на УЕФА Шампионска лига, Лига Европа и Лига на конференциите през следващите 3 години. 30 May 2024. bTV. 29 May 2024.
  23. News: UEFA Шампионска лига остава в ефира на MAX Sport през следващите 3 сезона. 30 May 2024. A1. 27 May 2024.
  24. News: DAZN Canada to continue exclusively broadcasting UEFA club competitions for the next three seasons. 16 January 2024. DAZN. 16 January 2024.
  25. News: ANNUAL REVIEW 2023. 10 January 2024. DAZN. December 2023.
  26. News: CPSL, operators of RUSH Sports awarded broadcast rights for all UEFA Men’s Club Competition matches for the Caribbean from 2024/25 through to the end of the 2026/27 season. 13 August 2024. CPSL. 13 August 2024.
  27. News: 2024-27 media rights sales: UEFA Champions League. 8 November 2023. UEFA. 8 November 2023.
  28. News: Perry. Joseph . EXCLUSIVE: Cyta retains Champions League rights, CyBC takes Europa League package. 2 December 2022. SportBusiness. 1 December 2022.
  29. News: Liga mistrů zůstává na Nova Sport. K vidění bude více zápasů. 30 May 2024. Nova Sport. 30 May 2024.
  30. News: Viaplay Group to show UEFA club competitions in five Nordic countries. 1 June 2024. Viaplay. 29 May 2024.
  31. News: McCaskill. Steve. Viaplay secures Uefa Champions League broadcast rights in Denmark, Sweden and Iceland until 2027. 30 May 2024. SportsPro Media. 30 May 2024.
  32. News: LA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE REGRESA A REPÚBLICA DOMINICANA A TRAVÉS DE ANTENA 7. 13 August 2024. 13 August 2024.
  33. News: Uudistuva UEFA Mestarien liiga jatkuu MTV:llä vuoteen 2027 asti. 1 June 2024. MTV. 22 May 2024.
  34. News: Le groupe Canal+ remporte, pour la première fois, 100 % des compétitions européennes soit l'intégralité de l'UEFA Champions League, l'intégralité de l'UEFA Europa League et l'intégralité de l'UEFA Europe Conference League de 2024/2025 à 2026/2027. 13 February 2024. Vivendi. 22 June 2022.
  35. News: M6 décroche la finale de la Ligue des champions en clair. 16 July 2022. SportsPro Media. 29 June 2022.
  36. News: CHAMPIONS LEAGUE AUF DAZN BIS 2027! NOCH MEHR SPIELE EXKLUSIV BEIM STREAMINGDIENST. 16 December 2022. DAZN. 16 December 2022.
  37. News: Mahadik. Gauresh. Amazon extends broadcast deal with UEFA Champions League in Germany. 8 December 2022. Sports Mint. 8 December 2022.
  38. News: UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League on COSMOTE TV until 2027. 11 May 2024. Cosmote. 9 May 2024.
  39. News: Champions League: Ως το 2027 η μετάδοση των αγώνων από το Mega. 4 July 2024. 27 June 2024.
  40. News: Yusuf. Imran. June 19, 2024. EXCLUSIVE: BeIN to hold Uefa club rights in all its Asian markets. SportBusiness. subscription. June 20, 2024.
  41. News: Az RTL Magyarország nyerte a Bajnokok Ligája közvetítési jogait a 2024/25-ös szezontól. 3 June 2023. RTL Magyarország. 3 June 2023.
  42. News: Minden eddiginél több UEFA BL-mérkőzést közvetít a Sport TV a következő években. 1 June 2023. Sport TV. 1 June 2023.
  43. News: Sony Pictures Networks India signs exclusive media rights renewal with UEFA for additional three years. 3 March 2024. 4 March 2024.
  44. News: Premier Sports scoops up UEFA competition rights for Ireland. 12 September 2023. 12 September 2023.
  45. News: Virgin Media Completes Hat Trick of Champions League Rights for Ireland. Sport for Business. Dublin. 13 February 2024. 13 February 2024.
  46. Amazon launching new online store in Ireland, Amazon.ie, in 2025. 12 May 2024. Amazon. Luxembourg. 9 May 2024.
  47. News: Champions, Europa e Conference League su Sky anche nel triennio 2024-2027. 9 May 2023. Sky Sport. Milan. 9 May 2023.
  48. News: Ufficiale, la Champions su Amazon fino al 2027. Calcio Finanza. 20 February 2023. 20 February 2023. it.
  49. News: UEFAチャンピオンズリーグ 2024-25シーズンもWOWOWで独占生中継（放送＆配信）「UEFAヨーロッパリーグ」・「UEFAカンファレンスリーグ」も独占生中継. 1 May 2024. Wowow. 1 May 2024.
  50. News: OFICIAL: LA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SE VERÁ EN CALIENTE TV. 13 August 2024. Caliente TV. 13 August 2024.
  51. News: beIN hones in on UEFA club rights renewal in MENA. 20 August 2024. SportBusiness. 16 August 2024.
  52. News: Champions League continuă la Jurnal TV. 31 May 2024. Jurnal TV. 13 August 2024.
  53. News: CANAL+ ရဲ့ဘောလုံးပရိသတ်တွေအတွက် CANAL+ SPORTS ရုပ်သံလိုင်းတွေက ယူဆောင်လာတဲ့ ဥရောပရဲ့ တော်ဝင်မြင့်မြတ်တဲ့ အခမ်းနားဆုံး ဘောလုံးပြိုင်ပွဲကြီး ၃ရပ်…. 13 August 2024. Canal+. 9 August 2024.
  54. News: Ziggo Sport verwerft exclusieve rechten UEFA clubvoetbal. 10 November 2022. Ziggo. Utrecht. nl. 10 November 2022.
  55. News: DAZN announces rights deal for UEFA competitions in New Zealand. 6 August 2024. DAZN. 6 August 2024.
  56. News: Avslørte på direkten: TV 2 sikret seg Champions League-rettighetene. 9 April 2024. TV2. 9 April 2024.
  57. News: tapmad to stream UEFA Champions League 2024 in Pakistan. UEFA.com . 20 July 2024.
  58. News: CANAL+ POZYSKAŁ WYŁĄCZNE PRAWA DO TRANSMISJI LIGI MISTRZÓW UEFA, LIGI MŁODZIEŻOWEJ UEFA ORAZ SUPERPUCHARU UEFA W POLSCE. 22 March 2024. Canal Plus. 22 March 2024.
  59. News: Sport TV e DAZN vão dividir direitos televisivos das competições europeias. 27 October 2023. ZeroZero. 27 October 2023.
  60. News: Din septembrie, spectacolul campionilor UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League și UEFA Conference League se vede din nou la Digi Sport. 13 August 2024. Digi Sport. 13 August 2024.
  61. News: Tot fotbalul mare este aici! Prima Sport va transmite în următorii 3 ani Champions League, Europa League şi Conference League. 13 August 2024. Prima Sport. 13 August 2024.
  62. News: 5 July 2024. Okko покажет матчи Лиги чемпионов УЕФА, Лиги Европы УЕФА и Лиги конференций УЕФА. 27 July 2024. Okko.
  63. News: UEFA Liga prvakov ostaja na Kanalu A. 8 November 2023. 24ur. 14 June 2023.
  64. News: UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League remain on Sport Klub channel in Slovenia. 10 May 2023. United Media. 10 May 2023.
  65. Web site: 2024-04-16 . EXCLUSIVE: Eclat maintains hold on Uefa club competitions in Korea . 2024-08-04 . SportBusiness . en-US.
  66. News: Yusuf. Imran. June 19, 2024. EXCLUSIVE: BeIN to hold Uefa club rights in all its Asian markets. SportBusiness. subscription. June 20, 2024.
  67. News: Movistar Plus+ retains Uefa Champions League rights for Spain. 2 August 2023. 7 December 2023. Sports Promedia.
  68. News: COMMUNIQUE DE PRESSE Paris, le 20 février 2024. 14 March 2024. Canal Plus. 21 February 2024.
  69. News: Communiqué de presse: New World TV diffuseur des compétitions interclubs UEFA. 21 February 2024. New World TV. 21 February 2024.
  70. News: Live-Spiele der Champions League ab der Saison 2024/25 bei der SRG. 10 February 2023. SRG. Bern. de. 10 February 2023.
  71. blue Sport bleibt königlich. 6 December 2022. Blue Entertainment. Zürich. 6 December 2022.
  72. News: ELTA TV. 19 July 2024. 連15季獨家轉播 2024-25歐冠足球聯賽9/18起鎖定愛爾達. Yahoo! Taiwan. zh-TW. 19 July 2024.
  73. News: Şampiyonlar Ligi, Avrupa Ligi ve Konferans Ligi TRT'de. 25 January 2024. TRT Haber. Ankara. 25 January 2024.
  74. News: Megogo транслюватиме Лігу чемпіонів УЄФА в Україні до 2027 року. 19 June 2024. 17 June 2024.
  75. News: BT remains home of UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League until 2027. 2 July 2022. BT plc. London. 1 July 2022.
  76. News: Champions League: BBC to show highlights from 2024-25 season. 2 July 2022. BBC Sport. Manchester. 1 July 2022.
  77. News: Amazon secures UK£1.5bn deal for Champions League rights in the UK. 2 July 2022. SportsPro. 30 June 2022.
  78. News: UEFA and CBS Sports/Paramount reach six-year deal to air Champions League, Europa and Conference League. 19 August 2022. CBS Sports. New York. Paramount Global. 19 August 2022.
  79. TelevisaUnivision Announces Expansive Sports Offering in 2024. 16 May 2023. TelevisaUnivision. New York. 16 May 2023.
  80. News: 2 August 2024. THÔNG CÁO BÁO CHÍ: VTVcab sở hữu quyền phát sóng các giải đấu cấp Câu lạc bộ của UEFA trong 3 mùa giải (2024/2025, 2025/2026, 2026/2027) trên đa nền tảng. VTVCab. 2 August 2024.
  81. News: 15 August 2024. TV360 phát sóng UEFA Champions League 3 năm tới. Tuổi Trẻ. 15 August 2024.

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