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- Final was first to be exclusively behind a paywall in UK
- TNT Sports is in penultimate year of contract
- Uefa strikes deal with Alibaba and pushes ahead with betting category
More than seven million people watched TNT Sports’ live coverage of the 2026 Uefa Champions League final between Arsenal and Paris St Germain in the UK despite the game not being broadcast free-to-air (FTA) on television or streaming.
TNT Sports – and its predecessor BT Sport – have held the rights to the competition since 2015/16 but have previously made the final available for free, either via a short-lived FTA channel or through live streams on mobile apps, Discovery+ or YouTube.
However, the Warner Bros Discovery (WBD)-owned sports broadcaster elected not to do so this year, hoping the prospect of three English teams in the finals of all three Uefa men’s club competitions would drive subscriptions to HBO Max, which launched in the UK earlier this year.
Prior to Saturday’s Champions League final in Budapest, Aston Villa defeated Bundesliga side Freiburg in the Uefa Europa League final, while Crystal Palace beat Spain’s Rayo Vallecano in the Uefa Conference League final.
With TNT’s contract set to expire at the end of the 2026/27 season, WBD was not in a position to realise the long-term benefits of wider exposure and instead opted to maximise its short-term return on investment – especially with the excitement surrounding Arsenal’s first appearance in the final since 2006.
It resisted calls from the UK government to make the game free to watch, while Uefa was said to be uneasy about the decision. However, the final is not on the ‘crown jewel’ list of protected events that must be made available FTA, while there is no contractual obligation on TNT to do so.
The lack of FTA coverage meant TNT Sports missed out on the opportunity to beat the record 12.6 million viewers who tuned in for the 2022 final between Liverpool and Real Madrid. But the broadcaster is said to be happy with the combined linear and streaming figures, which amounted to a 25.6 per cent share of the available audience.
It is also noteworthy that these figures were achieved despite Uefa moving kick-off forward by three hours from 8pm UK time. The move was designed to accommodate match-going supporters and make it easier for children to watch at home – at the expense of primetime scheduling that would have maximised overall audience.
But UK viewership is much lower than in France, where 9.8 million people watched the final on FTA network M6 and 3.1 million on pay-TV broadcaster Canal+. The combined audience of 12.9 million represented a 61.2 per cent share of French households.
Of greater concern to Uefa will be analysis conducted by The Guardian and Gaming Compliance International (GCI), which shows the game generated 16.2 million views of illegal streams in the UK traceable to 3.7 million unique IP addresses. This is more than half of viewers who watched legally.
While GCI’s figures are estimates and not immediately verifable, they demonstrate the growing risk of pir acy to the sports industry and its potential to limit the attractiveness of premium rights to broadcasters who fear they will not be able to generate a return on investment – ultimately impacting the amount that Uefa can charge for the rights.
Uefa is set for a significant revenue increase in its next cycle, the first to be managed by UC3 and its new global sales agency Relevent Football Partners (RFP).
RFP has already succeeded in securing significant increases in media rights revenue in key markets, reflecting the positive reception to the league phase format introduced in 2024 and rising competition between broadcasters and streaming services.
In the UK, TNT Sports missed out on the Champions League to Paramount+, which was awarded the majority of matches for the period between 2027 and 2031. It is unclear whether the contract obligates Paramount+ to make the final available for free. Given its parent company owns commercial network Channel 5, there is a possibility that the Champions League could return to FTA TV in some capacity.
UC3 and RFP are also working to increase commercial revenues by reevaluating longstanding relationships and creating new sponsorship categories. Nike is already in exclusive negotiations to replace Adidas as the official match ball provider, while last year saw Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) enter into exclusive negotiations to replace Heineken as the official beer sponsor for Uefa’s men’s club competitions.
SportsPro understands that UC3 and Relevent are working to strike a balance between renewing existing partnerships and bringing in new sponsors. PepsiCo, the incumbent soft drinks sponsor, is expected to renew its agreement at a valuation 2.5 times higher than its current deal.
The most recent developments have seen Chinese tech giant Alibaba become the official and exclusive partner for artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, and ecommerce services, while UC3 has now entered exclusive negotiations in the sports betting category. The company is unnamed, but its existing betting partner is Bet365.
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