UEFA eyeing €5 billion Champions League TV rights windfall
UEFA expect to close record global television agreements thanks to the expansion and remodelling of the tournament from 2024. For now, broadcaster in the UK, USt and France have taken advantage.
While European viewers are enjoying the Champions League semi-finals, especially Madrid’s contest with Manchester City, UEFA is advancing firmly in its plans to expand, optimize and get better economic performance from a tournament that in 2024 will undergo a profound revamp. Next season’s Champions League will be the last with the current format.
In 2024/5, the tournament will be expanded from from 32 to 36 teams, meaning that there will be more matches - 189 matches instead of 125 (64 more than now). The format change (based on the Swiss model, ie. home and away fixtures will be scrapped) is also considered to be more attractive for broadcasters, as there will be more games between seeded teams in the first phase than before. This is a crucial factor for UEFA in their negotiations with television companies.
“We are working on [both] conservative and more optimistic projections in a range I would say between €4.6 billion and €4.8 billion”, said UEFA’s competitions director, Giorgio Marchetti, in a a media briefing this week. That estimate multiplies the figures that have been obtained so far (€3.035 billion today, €1.324 billion a decade ago) with three fundamental markets already closed: the United States, France and the United Kingdom.
Broadcasting revenue from the United States
Although there are no official figures, it is estimated that UEFA’s income from the sale of its broadcasting rights in the US has been around €2 billion euros - almost double the previous amount.
The agreement was reached between Paramount Global, with its subsidiaries CBS and Viacom and Relevent Sports Group, the US-based sports marketing agency commissioned by UEFA as agent for this tender. The rights deals is for six years which is double the length of the previous arrangement.
In the United Kingdom, Amazon will enter fully together with BT in a new collaboration that will begin in 2024 and which ensures that the platform will get the pick of the best games on Tuesday nights - totalling around 20 games throughout the competition. The BBC secured a three-year highlights package deal. All of that will bring in roughly €1.6 billion. Meanwhile in France, Canal+ will pay €480 million for the rights to UEFA competitions. However, Canal+ will not be able to offer the Champions League final, as the final is considered “protected event” of special interest in France that must be broadcast on free-to-air television. Rights to show the final are currently owned by TF1, but from 2024 it will go to M6 for €4 million.
In Spain, there is still no news about who will end up with the audiovisual rights. Until 2024, the rights are in the hands of Telefónica, although there have been reports that platforms such as Amazon would be willing to bid for the new contract. Countries like Italy, Germany or Spain are considered very interesting for UEFA because of their great football tradition and their media transmission of the competition.