Paramount+ beats TNT Sports to UK Champions League rights in ‘UK£1.9bn’ Uefa broadcast shakeup
- Paramount to air most matches in UK and Germany
- Canal+, Movistar and Sky Sports secure rights
- Amazon retains in UK, Germany and Italy
Paramount+ will broadcast the majority of the Uefa Champions League in the UK from 2027 to 2031, with Amazon Prime renewing its package of first pick Tuesday night games and Sky Sports taking over responsibilities for the Uefa Europa League and Uefa Conference League.
The Times reports the combined deals are worth UK£1.9 billion, an increase from its current three-year deal which is worth a combined UK£1.36 billion. Paramount will air every single match from the Champions League, excluding Amazon’s exclusive fixture, taking over from TNT Sports, which currently airs all three of Uefa’s club competitions.
Paramount+ already streams the competition in the US as part of a US$1.5 billion deal and has won critical acclaim at home and abroad for its coverage.
The acquisition will accelerate Paramount’s bid to crack the UK market, where it also owns commercial free-to-air (FTA) broadcaster Channel 5 and free ad-supported television (FAST) platform PlutoTV.
The Champions League is arguably TNT Sports’ flagship property, providing a large volume of premium content. It was keen to retain the rights however Paramount’s bid was significantly more than what TNT was prepared to pay.
“TNT Sports retains a strong portfolio of football with our coverage of the Premier League, newly acquired Emirates FA Cup and Adobe Women’s FA Cup rights, as well as the Uefa club competitions for the next season and a half,” a TNT sports spokesperson told SportsPro.
“Coupled with an extensive portfolio of other premium sport, including The Ashes and international cricket, Prem Rugby and Premiership Women’s Rugby, UFC, MotoGP, Australian Open and Roland-Garros tennis, year-round cycling, the Olympic Games, it means TNT Sports continues to offer consumers great value despite the outcome of the recent auction.
“Ultimately we remained committed to the approach that made financial sense for our business, and for our customers.”
Paramount’s successful bid does, however, raise the prospect of British viewers needing three separate subscriptions to watch the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League. Although this could be resolved should Paramount’s interest in WBD lead to a formal merger.
But for now, Paramount’s ambitions are not limited to the UK. It is also believed to have won the majority of rights in Germany, beating out DAZN for the privilege. DAZN has, however retained the rights to the Uefa Europa League and Uefa Conference League.
Meanwhile Amazon has also renewed its agreements to show the first pick of matches in Germany and Italy, although its match night will shift from Tuesday to Wednesday in the next cycle.
“The combination of must-watch matches and the wide audience of Prime is delivering record viewership of the Champions League across Europe, and we will continue to raise the bar in our coverage,” said Alex Green, managing director of Prime Video sport, international. “The new four-year deal gives us long-term certainty and allows us to innovate even more deeply for fans, such as the introduction of Prime Vision this season.”
As for Sky Sports, its deal for all 342 matches a season from Europe’s secondary and tertiary competitions marks the first time it has worked with Uefa in the UK since it lost its Champions League contract in 2015. It previously aired Uefa Cup soccer for a brief period at the turn of the century.
The additional inventory will further strengthen its soccer offering, which already includes more than 1,500 live games from the Premier League, English Football League (EFL), Women’s Super League (WSL) and Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), each season.
“I’m proud that we’re able to bring European football competitions back to Sky customers,” added Jonathan Licht, chief sports officer at Sky Sports.
“The Uefa Europa League and Conference League have delivered some of the most exciting European stories in recent years, with English clubs consistently performing strongly and lifting trophies.
“Fans will now regularly enjoy domestic or European football every day of the week during the season on Sky Sports.”
Sky has also retained the rights to 185 out of 203 Champions League matches in Italy, with Amazon showing the remaining 18 fixtures. Movistar has retained in Spain, while Canal+ remains the senior broadcast partner in France.
The BBC has retained free-to-air (FTA) highlights in the UK, while ZDF has secured a similar package in Germany.
This is the first broadcast tender to be managed by Relevent, which has a deal to market, sell and manage the rights to Uefa club competitions in Europe until 2033. It performs the same role in the US where it brokered Paramount’s most recent deal.
The rights to the ‘big five’ European markets of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK are being sold concurrently, allowing major media giants to bid for multiple countries to scale their proposition. It appears though, however, that plans to offer the exclusive global rights to a single match have been scuppered by lack of demand.
The Champions League represents Uefa’s largest source of annual revenue, with the switch to a 36-team league phase last season helping to both increase overall inventory and the frequency of matches between Europe’s top sides.
Uefa is thought to be seeking a ten per cent increase in annual media revenues from €4.4 billion (US$5.07 billion) to €5 billion (US$5.76 billion) for its next cycle.
