Paramount Skydance, a US media and entertainment giant, has emerged victorious in the auction for broadcasting rights of most Champions League matches in the UK. This development is set to significantly reshape the domestic rights market from 2027 to 2031.
Paramount, whose subsidiary company Paramount+ owns the rights for Champions League games in the US, made an impressive bid at this week's auction. The Guardian reports that their bid was considerably higher than TNT's current £1bn payment. This successful bid is seen as a major win for UC3 - a joint venture between Uefa and European Football Clubs that runs the Champions League - and its new commercial rights distributor, Relevent Football Partners.
Amazon Prime retains Tuesday matches
In addition to Paramount’s acquisition, Amazon Prime confirmed it had retained first pick of Tuesday matches across three major European markets under UEFA’s new streaming deal. Despite competition from rival streamers like Netflix and Disney+, Amazon will continue having first dibs on Tuesday games in Germany, Italy and UK starting 2027.
However, there will be restrictions on how many times each club can be shown by Amazon Prime. The outcome of this auction implies that UK fans will need another subscription to watch Champions League matches as Paramount joins an expanding portfolio of football rights holders including TNT, Sky Sports, Dazn and Amazon.
This deal grants Paramount exclusive live broadcast rights for every Champions League game in the UK except for first pick Tuesday night matches which were separately auctioned off to five major European markets collectively. Canal+ secured all broadcasting rights for Champions League fixtures in France while Movistar outbid rivals including Paramount itself to retain its Spanish broadcasting privileges. These bids reflect increasing American interest in European football ahead of next summer’s World Cup.
UEFA's confidence in increased revenue
Given the high values of the winning bids, Uefa is confident of securing a significant increase on the £2.9bn-a-year value of TV rights in the current three-year cycle. The Champions League auction was the first tender process run for UEFA by US-owned agency Relevent Football Partners since it replaced Team Marketing last year.
The new changes introduced by UC3 and Relevent, such as pan-European streaming package and extending rights cycle to four years, have been validated with these bumper deals. In another major development, Sky Sports announced that it has won broadcasting rights for all 342 Europa League and Conference League matches from 2027 onwards. This comes as another setback for TNT which has held UK rights since 2013 under BT Sport brand.
Paramount’s successful bid signifies its determination to break into European market while also indicating a shift in sports broadcasting landscape with increasing American interest in European football.
