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US commercial broadcaster CBS has secured English-language rights to the Uefa Champions League, Europe’s elite club soccer tournament, from 2021 through 2024, according to multiple reports.
According to the Sports Business Journal (SBJ), Univision has retained the Spanish-language contract for another three years, with the two broadcasters set to pay a combined US$150 million per year, although the cost split has not been reported.
Currently, Turner and Univision pay US$105 million a year for rights to the competition, with those deals expiring at the end of the 2020/21 season. Turner pays around US$60 million per season for its rights, with Univision’s deal worth around US$35 million annually.
According to reports, CBS will air games across its main broadcast channel and its sports network cable service with its eight million subscriber-strong All Access over-the-top (OTT) platform to broadcast the competition in its entirety. Univision’s coverage will reportedly remain the same.
Whilst CBS has not aired any soccer since the now-defunct North American Soccer League (NASL), it does have a strong portfolio of sports rights including the National Football League’s (NFL) AFC broadcast package, Southeastern Conference (SEC) college football and the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) March Madness basketball tournament.
The deal would come as a surprise, with CBS not linked with a bid before Team Marketing, Uefa’s exclusive sales partner for its men’s club competitions, closed the tender process last week.
Turner is in the second year of its Champions League contract. The AT&T-owned subsidiary has opted to take its distribution for the tournament in the OTT direction, airing most of the early round matches via its B/R Live streaming service with only select games being transmitted via the linear TNT network.
Last season’s final between English clubs Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur averaged 1.5 million viewers on TNT, down from the 2 million that watched the 2018 final on Fox.
Elsewhere, there is further Champions League news as Uefa has been linked once again with taking the 2024 final to New York in a report by the Morning Consult. Last year, Jaume Roures, chief executive of Spanish agency Mediapro, said that Uefa had held talks about taking its showpiece fixture to the US, but the governing body played down those suggestions at the time.
CBS has secured English-language rights to the Uefa Champions League
US commercial broadcaster CBS has secured English-language rights to the Uefa Champions League, Europe’s elite club soccer tournament, from 2021 through 2024, according to multiple reports.
According to the Sports Business Journal (SBJ), Univision has retained the Spanish-language contract for another three years, with the two broadcasters set to pay a combined US$150 million per year, although the cost split has not been reported.
Currently Turner and Univision pay US$105 million a year for rights to the competition, with those deals expiring at the end of the 2020/21 season. Turner pays around US$60 million per season for its rights, with Univision’s deal worth around US$35 million annually.
According to reports, CBS will air games across its main broadcast channel and its sports network cable service with its eight million subscriber-strong All Access over-the-top (OTT) platform to broadcast the competition in its entirety. Univision’s coverage will reportedly remain the same.
Whilst CBS has not aired any soccer since the now-defunct North American Soccer League (NASL), it does have a strong portfolio of sports rights including the National Football League’s (NFL) AFC broadcast package, Southeastern Conference (SEC) college football and the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) March Madness basketball tournament.
The deal would come as a surprise, with CBS not linked with a bid before Team Marketing, Uefa’s exclusive sales partner for its men’s club competitions, closed the tender process last week.
Turner is in the second year of its Champions League contract. The AT&T-owned subsidiary has opted to take its distribution for the tournament in the OTT direction, airing most of the early round matches via its B/R Live streaming service with only select games being transmitted via the linear TNT network.
Last season’s final between English clubs Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur averaged 1.5 million viewers on TNT, down from the 2 million that watched the 2018 final on Fox.
Elsewhere, there is further Champions League news as Uefa has been linked once again with taking the 2024 final to New York in a report by the Morning Consult. Last year, Jaume Roures, chief executive of Spanish agency Mediapro, said that Uefa had held talks about taking its showpiece fixture to the US, but the governing body played down those suggestions at the time.