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- New set of 19 broadcast deals in Europe and Americas raise €775m collectively
- Canal+, DAZN and Paramount+ all buy packages in different territories
- Uefa aiming for €5bn in annual media rights revenues for next cycle
Disney+ will show the Uefa Champions League for the first time as part of a new wave of broadcast deals agreed by European soccer’s governing body.
The streaming service has secured exclusive rights to all Uefa men’s club competitions in Sweden and half of matches in Mexico and South America from 2027 through to 2031. It has also won the rights to the Uefa Europa League and Uefa Conference League in Brazil and Denmark.
The deals form part of wider efforts to expand Disney+’s sporting portfolio in international markets. Disney+ already owns the rights to the Uefa Women’s Champions League across Europe, offers live LaLiga in the UK, and, most recently, served up live coverage of the March Madness college basketball tournaments.
“ESPN has a strong history of covering Uefa club competitions and these agreements build on that foundation,” said Diego Londono, senior vice president and general manager for networks and sport, The Walt Disney Company EMEA.
“The addition of the Uefa Champions League to our rights portfolio reflects the continued expansion of ESPN on Disney+ across Europe.”
In total, UC3, the joint venture between Uefa and European Football Clubs (EFC), has struck deals for 19 more countries, which SportsPro understands are worth a combined €775 million (US$910.6 million). This represents nearly a 40 per cent increase on the previous three-year cycle.
This four-year cycle is the first to be managed by Uefa’s global sales agency Relevent Football Partners, which replaced Team Marketing.
Another streamer, Paramount+, has picked up the exclusive rights to Uefa competitions in Canada and to the remaining half of games in Mexico and South America, building on its previous swoops in the UK and Germany. In Ireland, the rights to the Champions League will be split between state broadcaster RTE and Premier Sports, Canal+ secured the rights in Belgium, and Blue Sports retained in Switzerland. DAZN secured various packages in Austria, Portugal and Switzerland.
Deals were also agreed in Bulgaria, Central America, the Czech Republic, Finland, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.
An earlier auction for Europe’s five largest markets, including the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy, netted €2.5 billion (US$2.94 billion) in total, which represents an increase of over 20 per cent on the current three-year cycle. In the US, Paramount is reportedly paying US$1.5 billion over six years between 2024 and 2030. SportsPro understands Uefa has now achieved 75 per cent of its expected annual media rights revenue, with an overall commercial sales target of €5 billion (US$5.87 billion).
A key component of Uefa’s strategy has been to attract streaming services by launching simultaneous tenders in multiple markets to encourage cross-border bids from global and regional broadcasters. The next stage of the process will see the rights taken to market in Asia, MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa.
SportsPro understands that plans to launch a direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming service to offer live Champions League games in Asia are at an early stage. It has been reported that Uefa hopes to have the platform functional as soon as next year.
UC3 is also working on new sponsorship deals, with brands able to sign up to six-year contracts.
PepsiCo is expected to renew its deal at a higher valuation, while Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) and Nike are in exclusive talks to become new Champions League sponsors on more lucrative agreements, replacing long-time partners Heineken and Adidas respectively.
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