European soccer's governing body UEFA has put top-tier Champions League (UCL) media rights for the next cycle out to tender in its five biggest continental markets.
In a departure from previous UCL media rights tenders, an exclusive first-pick package, offering rights to one fixture per gameweek, is being introduced, with UEFA's commercial venture UC3 (also incorporating the European Football Clubs body) saying this is being launched to "serve new consumers and viewership trends."
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Through a process just getting underway, five 'first-of-their kind' tenders for rights to European men's soccer's most iconic competition – as well as the second-tier UEFA Europa League, and third-tier UEFA Conference League – went live yesterday, across the UK, Spain, Italy, France, and Germany.
These cover four seasons, between 2027-28 and 2030-31, and are the first tender processes to be managed by US agency Relevent Sports, which replaced UEFA’s longstanding sales partner Team Marketing in that position last year (as was subsequently confirmed in March). In previous cycles, Team tendered rights for three seasons.
The deadlines for these are all November 18, with the process being handled by the newly-established Relevent Football Partners division.
It has also been announced that the first game each season from the UCL – on a Tuesday night, with the rest of the opening games following on the Wednesday and Thursday – will be a marquee and standalone fixture hosted by the winners of the previous season's competition.
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By GlobalDataCurrently, pay-TV broadcaster TNT and Amazon Prime hold rights to UEFA’s men’s competitions in the UK, with public broadcaster the BBC securing highlights.
In Spain, pay-TV operator Movistar Plus holds rights to the competitions, while a combination of streaming service DAZN, Amazon Prime, and public service broadcaster ZDF provides coverage in Germany.
Rights in France are shared between pay-TV broadcaster Canal+ and commercial broadcaster M6, while the competitions are shown by pay-TV giant Sky Sports and Amazon Prime in Italy.
Globally, UEFA is attempting to secure a 10% increase on the existing value of the rights.
The current rights, for the three-year cycle which got underway in 2024 and runs through 2026-27, are worth about £2.9 billion ($3.8 billion) per year, with Champions League clubs earning almost 75% of the revenue from UEFA’s rights sales. Europa League clubs are handed 17%, while 8% is spread across sides participating in the Conference League.
Commenting on the launch of these tenders, UC3's co-managing director Guy-Laurent Epstein said: "By introducing a more flexible and globally focused approach, we aim to attract a broader range of partners and ensure UEFA’s club competitions continue to lead the way in sports media innovation. Relevent Football Partners’ expert knowledge of the commercial landscape makes them an ideal partner to help us deliver on this ambition.”
Boris Gartner, Relevent Football Partners' chief executive, added: "Our goal is to build a model that aligns incentives and creates enduring value for media partners, the competitions themselves, and the clubs they represent – not just for the next cycle, but for the next 20 years and beyond.”
Two processes are beginning in each of the five European markets, technically – one covers the Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, and UEFA Youth League, with the other covering the Europa League and Conference League.
The overall tender process for UCL rights across the next cycle was approved following a UC3 board meeting in Rome last week.
