Netflix set to bid for Champions League games in TV rights shake-up

Netflix has yet to enter the market for sports rights in a big way but has shown an NFL American football match at Christmas and the Mike Tyson v Jake Paul boxing match, which was a major success for the platform in terms of viewers — it hit a peak of 65 million streams. Netflix has also bought the US rights for Fifa’s 2027 and 2031 Women’s World Cup.

The sale of Uefa’s rights for the other Champions League, Europa League and Conference League matches will allow broadcasters to bid for multiple markets at the same time — for example, Discovery/TNT Sports or Sky could bid for the rest of the games in all the five major markets: UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and France.

The American sports marketing agency Relevent is selling the rights to the competitions on behalf of Uefa.

Sources said the expectation was for at least a 10 per cent increase on the annual value of Uefa’s income from club competitions from €4.4billion at the moment to €5billion, and possibly even higher. The Premier League’s annual earnings from domestic and overseas TV deals are £3.6billion.

Higher media rights income will means clubs involved in European competition will cash in even more — the new Champions League format launched last season brought a 25 per cent increase on the previous cycle.

There are always concerns that more Champions League money will further widen the financial gap to those clubs not in the elite competition but Uefa have previously insisted the money distributed to sides in the Europa League and Conference League, and solidarity payments to those clubs not in European competition, will continue to rise more sharply.

Relevent is also expected to consider bids for the rights for between three and six years. Uefa have previously sold the rights every three years but Relevent secured a six-year deal with CBS for the US rights from 2024-30 worth $1.5billion.

Uefa’s president, Aleksander Ceferin, told the EFC annual assembly in Rome that the new format of the Champions League had proved a huge success.

He said: “Together we are building something unique with ambition, to deliver the most engaging football, the most innovative and the most accessible to expand our core revenue streams.”

Ceferin added Uefa would “drive engagement with new audiences especially in an ever-changing media and streaming rights landscape and to make the most of digital platforms and bring the game closer together for ever”. He concluded: “This is how we will keep European football at the very top.”

Click here to read article