A Champions League of ‘Pay per View’

Are we heading back in time? Younger fans may not even know what we mean when we talk about being able to watch any soccer game in Spain on demand. That ended in the 1990s, when the era of only being able to watch one game by decree gave way to freedom of choice – but only if you were willing to pay for it directly. UEFA has looked at the Premier League and now has the idea on the table, if it chooses to move ahead, starting with the 2027-28 season. The possibility is among the options being considered for the next sale of Champions League broadcast rights.

As always, the glass looks half full or half empty depending on who is looking at it. Many see behind UEFA’s move the same kind of platform the Super League once said would allow everyone to watch the new competition, which is now working hand in hand with UEFA after the agreement reached just over a month ago. It would be a specialized platform built around European club soccer.

The Super League called it “Unify” and spoke of free soccer, something that is hard to imagine in the current landscape. Meanwhile, UEFA recently reached an agreement with the European Club Association to experiment with commercial and audiovisual rights in certain regions as a test case. The idea is to try it on a small scale before applying it more widely later on. The company involved is called UC3.

That said, it is worth remembering that soccer’s broadcast rights are sold every three seasons, and the next cycle is still waiting to take shape after the recent shift in the landscape. The assumption is that the competition format will remain as it is, though that issue is also under review. The current Champions League is popular, but some may feel it can still be improved.

According to English media outlets, everything is still at a very early stage, but the goal is to open the product more directly to fans. So-called pay-per-view has been placed in a prominent position. The Premier League is already testing it in some markets. The model under consideration is to sell games directly to consumers and avoid selling TV rights to traditional broadcasters or over-the-top streaming platforms.

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