UEFA have secured a new UK Champions League TV deal, with TNT Sports losing the rights to the competition and costs rising to £400m a year.
Martyn Ziegler reports for The Times that UEFA have agreed a UK TV deal with Paramount+, Sky Sports, Amazon, and the BBC worth more than £1.6bn over four years from 2027 to 2031.
From 2027, the Champions League will be shown primarily on Paramount+, with one match per round shown on Amazon’s Prime Video instead. The BBC will air the highlights, as they already do currently.
As for Sky Sports, they’ve won the rights to show Europa League and Conference League matches.
TNT Sports currently hold the rights to all three competitions, with a deal worth £1bn over three years. So UEFA will be earning £400m-a-year from UK broadcasters from 2027, as opposed to the £333m they bring in currently.
TNT Sports aren’t involved in the new deal, so their association with UEFA competitions will end in 2027.
Yet TNT Sports will continue to air matches in the Premier League until at least 2028/29.
So for the 2027/28 and 2028/29 seasons, fans of a Champions League club would have to sign up for TNT Sports, Sky Sports, Prime Video, and Paramount+ to watch all of their team’s Premier League and Champions League games.
In terms of the financials, Premier League clubs will be pleased. UEFA are bringing in more money to distribute to Champions League teams, and Sky Sports and TNT Sports missing out on the Champions League rights means the Premier League rights are even more valuable to them.
But when it comes to the fans, they’ll be paying for an additional service just to get the same experience as they already have now.