Amazon Prime win Champions League broadcast rights; BBC to show highlights

Forum 1 year ago

Amazon Prime win Champions League broadcast rights; BBC to show highlights

Coverage of the Champions League will appear on streaming service Amazon Prime from 2024 onwards, while highlights will appear on the BBC for the first time.

BT Sport has exclusively broadcast Champions League fixtures in the UK since 2015 after ousting Sky for TV rights.

But that will change from 2024 onwards as Amazon will split the rights with BT Sport until 2027 - the global technology behemoth have paid £1.5bn to get first choice on which Tuesday night games they would like to show.

The BBC, meanwhile, have committed to bringing European football back to domestic television, with a Match of the Day-style highlights show to be broadcast on Wednesday evenings.

The new TV deal will coincide with the Champions League's group stage expansion from 32 teams to 36 under UEFA's new 'Swiss model' plans, with 189 matches per season being played as opposed to 125.

Clubs will compete in one single table and will have eight guaranteed games against opponents of differing quality. The top eight teams will advance to the last 16, while the next 16 teams will head to a play-off round.

The deal with Amazon is the second agreement to be signed off since the European Club Association (ECA) and Uefa partnered to set up a tender process for the marketing of the rights. Canal Plus in France were the first to agree terms, paying an estimated €480m (£413m) per season.