BT confirm they will pay £1.2BILLION for TV rights to the Champions League and the Europa League until 2024 after seeing off Sky Sports’ challenge
- BT have won exclusive TV rights to broadcast all of UEFA’s club competitions
- Champions League, Europa League and Conference League will be on BT Sport
- The British telecoms company agreed to pay £1.2billion for all 420 games
- They saw off competition from Sky Sports, which held the rights until 2015
BT have won exclusive rights to broadcast the Champions League, Europa League and UEFA’s newest club competition Europa Conference League.
The British telecoms company agreed to extend their current deal for another three years after paying a eye-watering £1.2billion to broadcast all the games from the three competitions.
BT Sport will now be the home for 420 games, 77 more from their previous deal with customers getting access to all the highlights and in-match clips.
BT Sport have retained the rights to broadcast the Champions League in the United Kingdom
It means that the Champions League and Europa League will remain on subscription television.
But BT have traditionally made the final of the elite club competition available to watch for free.
They have managed to beat competition from Sky Sports, which held the rights until 2015.
The BT-backed channel will continue to show every game in the competition live
The value of the deal has not fallen from the £1.2bn BT paid for the rights for the 2018-21 period
ITV were also looking into regaining some rights and bringing the competition back to free-to-air TV after previously showing one game per round.
The Champions League was won by Liverpool last season and the final included two English sides, with Spurs the losing finalists.
UEFA have also sold the rights in the United States. CBS and Univision will share coverage, paying a combined $140m (£108m) a season from 2021.