• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

SEENIT

TV, Film, Broadband, Pay-TV, Games, Computing and Tech | News, Comment & Reviews

  • NEWS
  • FEATURES
  • ADVERTISE
  • Twitter

BT agrees £1.2bn deal for Champions League football rights

March 6, 2017 - Martin Hoscik@seenituk

BT has stuck a £1.2bn deal to retain exclusive coverage of the Champions League and Europa League until 2021.

The ISP and sports broadcaster became the contests’ exclusive live home in 2015 when it snatched the rights from Sky and ITV, although ITV retained rights to show highlights.

The majority of games were shown on the BT Sports subscription channels, with selected matches aired free-to-air on a ‘showcase’ channel available to Freeview homes, with some also shown on YouTube.

Viewing figures for the competitions were far below those achieved by Sky and ITV and there had been speculation that UEFA was considering reverting to sharing the rights between a pay and FTA broadcaster to boost audiences.

BT faced competition from Sky but ultimately retained the rights by agreeing to pay £300m more than it does under the current deal.

Under its renewed deal, which comes into effect from the 2018/19 season, BT will have exclusivity over all live games and highlights and has committed to showing clips, weekly highlights, UEFA’s magazine show, and both finals for free on social media.

Changes to the competitions mean a minimum of four participating teams are now guaranteed from each of England, Spain, Germany and Italy and Champions League ‘double header’ nights, with live matches kicking off at both 6pm and 8pm during the Group Stage.

John Petter, Consumer CEO at BT, said: “We are delighted to have renewed these rights.

“The UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League are two of the best competitions in the world and we would like to thank UEFA for choosing us as their exclusive broadcast partner in the UK.

“The UEFA Champions League is due to get even stronger and we are delighted that fans will be able to enjoy two live matches a night for the first time.”

Guy Laurent Epstein, UEFA marketing director, said “UEFA is delighted to have extended the relationship with BT Sport for a further three seasons, taking our partnership to 2021.

“BT Sport has proved to be an innovative broadcast partner, pushing the boundaries and covering the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League in new ways.

“BT have delivered strong audiences in the UK and we are excited about their future plans for the use of social media which will engage a growing fanbase that consumes sport in different ways.”

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Blu-ray and Gaming Top Buys

Lionsgate to release Anthony Hopkins and Anson Mount’s The Virtuoso next month

The complete Indiana Jones movie series is getting a 4K Blu-ray release

Eureka to release Sammo Hung’s Encounter Of The Spooky Kind on Blu-ray

RECENT

Lionsgate to release Anthony Hopkins and Anson Mount’s The Virtuoso next month

Chris Pratt’s The Tomorrow War will debut on Prime Video

BBC iPlayer gets ‘sleeker’ user interface on TVs

BBC First comes to Catchplay+

Popular

MPs urge ministers to guarantee PSB prominence on streaming devices

Apple TV+ is coming to Google TV

New Django series is coming to Sky and CANAL+

BBC, ITV and Channel 4 announce plans to merge Digital UK and Freesat

Featured

Ofcom calls for greater social and geographic diversity in TV and radio

BT Sport app now available on Now TV devices

StarzPlay is now available from Rakuten TV

Britbox – What does the new UK-centric streaming service offer?

ADVERTISE ON SEENIT

We’re pleased to offer a number of advertising opportunities to high quality brands including sponsored content, competitions and advertising placements.

Please contact us for details.

MORE FROM US

Copyright © 2021 · All Rights Reserved · Contact Us · Copyright · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy