In addition to having tied up a number of key media rights deals across Europe for its next four-year club competitions cycle, European soccer's UEFA has also been active in the Americas.
In Brazil, the Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) media and entertainment heavyweight has taken all rights to the top-tier UEFA Champions League (UCL) across the four seasons between 2027-28 and 2030-31, while Disney – through the ESPN sports broadcaster (linear networks) and Disney+ (streaming rights) – will cover the second-tier Europa League and third-tier Conference League.
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The current cycle involves WBD, through its TNT Sports broadcaster, sharing UCL rights in that market with SBT, and a range of networks airing the other two competitions.
Brazil, one of the foremost soccer nations, which supplies a vast number of players to European teams, has its rights sold separately from the main South America package.
For the rest of South America, the Paramount+ service will cover half of all UCL matches for the next four seasons, while ESPN and Disney+ will air the other half.
This season, ESPN is showing all games for a South American audience outside Brazil. Disney has also snapped up regional rights to the two lower-tier competitions.
Paramount+ and Disney will also share UCL rights across Central America (including Mexico, where rights are technically sold outside the main regional package).
Europa League and Conference League rights in the latter market, meanwhile, have again been snapped up by Disney, to be shared between ESPN and Disney+.
The 2025-26 UCL is available in Mexico through a combination of WBD, CalienteTV, and Fox Sports. In March, Telecoms giant America Movil picked up rights to the Europa League and Conference League in Mexico and Central America through the 2026-27 season.
UEFA began its tender process for rights in several European, Central American, and South American territories in early March, with a deadline of April 21 set for submissions, following which a rights auction took place.
The process, which represented the largest close ever undertaken for the UEFA men's club competitions, was managed by sports agency Relevent Football Partners and UC3, the joint venture between UEFA and the European Club Association (ECA) that controls the marketing, sales, and delivery of commercial rights for the club competitions.
Deals across all 19 markets yesterday totaled €775 million ($910 million), marking a 40% increase on the current four-year cycle.
Rights to UEFA competitions were already allocated in the 'Big Five' European markets of the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, and France late last year. These deals are valued at €2.5 billion, a 20% uplift.
Those were the first tender processes to be managed by Relevent, which replaced UEFA’s longstanding sales partner Team Marketing in that position in late 2024.
UEFA's total commercial revenues for the 2027-28 season are expected to reach the region of €5 billion.
