French media outlet and broadcaster, L’Equipe, has successfully landed free-to-air domestic rights to the UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL) club competition. This multi-year agreement will allow the channel to broadcast one live UWCL game per matchday, including the final.
This development comes on the heels of L'Equipe's recent airing of the 2024-25 final between Arsenal and Barcelona. The channel will primarily focus on broadcasting matches involving French clubs. OL Lyonnes, formerly known as Olympique Lyonnais Féminin - a team with a record eight titles in this competition - is expected to feature prominently.
The deal was facilitated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), an umbrella organization representing free-to-air broadcasters across Europe. The EBU recently secured a package of rights from UEFA for free-to-air distribution of this prestigious tournament.
Broadening reach across Europe
Under its rights package, EBU aims to bring one game per matchweek to public-service broadcasters in nearly 30 European territories. These include Spain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Norway and Sweden among others.
In addition to live games, highlights and shoulder content produced by Eurovision Sport – EBU’s own free-to-air streaming service – will be available for members as supplementary material for their broadcasts. Historically speaking, the EBU has sublicensed major UWCL fixtures for its member broadcasters in previous years too.
Disney+ holds primary rights
Despite these developments, it should be noted that primary rights to UWCL are held by Disney+ streaming platform after it acquired rights for five years starting from 2025-26 season through till 2029-30 season. This was part of a deal with UC3, a joint venture set up by UEFA and European Club Association. The service is set up to showcase all 75 UWCL fixtures each season across the region.
The 2025-26 UWCL campaign is set to kick off with the qualification stage on July 30, culminating in the final at Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo in late May 2026. This new broadcasting deal promises to bring women's football closer to fans across Europe, and further enhance its growing popularity.
