The media rights landscape for the elite UEFA Champions League (UCL) is undergoing a significant transformation. Simultaneous tenders in five major European markets - the UK, Germany, Spain, France, and Italy - have reshaped the broadcasting rights mix for Europe's premier soccer competition.
For the first time in its history, UEFA tendered a global exclusive rights package for UCL. However, none of the bids were high enough to offset reduced offers for other national packages. This led to second bidding rounds in all five markets with these 'first-of-their-kind' tenders going live in October.
This marked a departure from previous cycles where Team Marketing managed three-season tendering processes on behalf of UEFA. The current process was overseen by US agency Relevent Sports which replaced Team Marketing last year.
Market-by-Market breakdown
In three key markets – the UK, Germany and Italy – Amazon Prime Video extended its first-pick rights across Europe between 2027 and 2031. These rights will shift to Wednesday nights instead of Tuesday in Germany and Italy.
Amazon’s Prime e-commerce offering has helped it become one of the most popular global streamers. It has leveraged this position into strong UCL viewership records including breaking streaming records in the UK during 2024-25 season.
Sky also emerged as a big winner from these tenders through gains made via its Sky Italia venture. It secured broadcast coverage rights to UCL games along with second-tier Europa League and third-tier Conference League games across all seasons until 2031. Sky will showcase 184 out of 203 UCL games each season along with all Europa League and Conference League matches per year on its linear TV networks as well as NOW TV over-the-top platform. This cements its status as UEFA’s primary club competition broadcaster in Italy.
Movistar+ retains Spanish market
In Spain, Telefonica-owned Movistar+ retained exclusive rights to all UCL games along with Europa League, Conference League and UEFA Super Cup for a whopping €1.46 billion ($1.68 billion) fee.
Public-service broadcaster RTVE will retain co-exclusive rights to the UCL final only while Movistar+ will showcase all other games amounting to 545 matches each year. In France, major pay-TV operator Canal+ emerged victorious by securing exclusivity across the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League much like Telefonica in Spain. It also split the rights to the UCL final with commercial free-to-air network TF1.
Germany saw a split of broadcasting rights among Prime Video, Paramount+, OTT service DAZN and public-service broadcaster ZDF who all selected different packages. Paramount+'s efforts have seen it box out DAZN which previously held primary UCL rights in Germany.
Paramount seems to be the big winner from this tender process surpassing rivals in both UK and Germany markets thereby increasing its sports market share significantly for a strong four-year period ahead. The streamer also secured primary UCL broadcast coverage package in UK outbidding rival TNT Sports for these coveted suite of rights marking an exciting new era for European soccer broadcasting.
