Puls 4, the Austrian commercial broadcaster, has acquired two packages of free-to-air rights to UEFA European club soccer competitions for the next three-year cycle.
Through the agreement, the ProSiebenSat.1-owned broadcaster will show a UEFA Champions League highlights program on Tuesday evenings and will have live rights to a Europa League or Europa Conference League match on Thursdays form the 2024-25 to 2026-27 seasons.
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Puls 4 will replace rival Servus TV, which presently holds free-to-air rights to the competitions. Pay-TV rights are held by operator Sky Austria.
In the 2018-21 cycle, Puls 4 held free-to-air rights to one Europa League match per week.
Earlier this month, Sky renewed its deal to retain the bulk of rights to the UEFA club competitions, while pay-TV giant Canal Plus also secured a package of rights in Austria for the same three-year period.
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Sky's deal includes exclusive rights to all Tuesday evening matches and eight of the nine Wednesday matches played per week. It will show 185 Champions League matches each season, while both Sky and Canal Plus will have rights to air the final.
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By GlobalDataCanal Plus, which launched in Austria in March 2022 in cooperation with telecoms firm A1 Telekom Austria, will have exclusive rights to show the Champions League first-pick game played on Wednesday and the Europa League or Europa Conference League first-pick game in each match week.
Additionally, the French broadcasting heavyweight will be the only operator in the country broadcasting all three finals of the UEFA competitions, while it will also show highlights of all the games.
The new agreement with UEFA bolsters Puls 4's rights portfolio which already includes the Uefa Nations League, European qualifiers, and the German Bundesliga.
Team Marketing, UEFA’s exclusive media rights agency for club competitions in all markets excluding the US, launched a rights tender in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in October for rights to the 2024-25 to 2026-27 cycle. The deadline for first-round bids was November 14.
Streaming platforms Amazon Prime Video and DAZN recently extended their coverage rights in Germany while rights in Switzerland were awarded to Blue, the pay-television operator formerly known as Teleclub.
Tenders are still out for rights in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Bulgaria.
Team Marketing has recently awarded rights for the next cycle to several European broadcasters including Dutch telecoms operator Ziggo, pay-TV broadcaster Telekom Srbija, public broadcaster HRT in Croatia, and public broadcaster RTK and pay-TV broadcaster ArtMotion in Kosovo.
In the UK, pay-TV broadcaster BT Sport, online retailer Amazon, and public service broadcaster BBC picked up the rights, while commercial broadcaster M6 has secured a package of rights alongside Canal Plus in France.
