Blue, the pay-television operator in Switzerland formerly known as Teleclub, has retained rights to air all club competition tournaments organized by European soccer governing body UEFA for another three seasons.
The deal, running through the 2024-25 to 2026-27 seasons, will see Blue continue its coverage of all group-stage and knockout-stage matches from the UEFA Champions League, Europa League, and Europa Conference League via its Blue Sport subscription channels.
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Blue's coverage will also include extensive media coverage on television, online via the Blue News website, and on the Blue TV streaming platform.
The new deal comes after 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.
The awarding of rights in Germany and Austria for the period has not been announced, while tenders are still out for rights in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Bulgaria.
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Wolfgang Elsässer, chief executive of parent company Blue Entertainment, said: “For us, this acquisition of rights is an important confirmation of our past performance in football coverage.
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By GlobalData“We are happy to be able to continue to show our viewers the matches of the best European competitors.”
Blue currently holds the rights in the country to all UEFA club competition matches through a three-season deal running from 2021-22 to 2023-24.
The current cycle has seen Blue sublicense free-to-air rights to selected Champions League, Europa League, and Europa Conference League matches to Swiss media group CH Media, which airs them across the German-language channel 3+, as well as TV24 and Teleclub Zoom in French and Italian-speaking regions.
The sublicensed matches are also broadcast on the pay television’s Blue Sports channels.
During the 2018-21 rights cycle, Blue secured exclusive rights to all but one Champions League match per week, as well as a package of Europa League matches, which we also aired by Swiss public broadcaster SRG SSR.
Team Marketing has recently awarded rights for the next cycle to several European broadcasters including Dutch telecoms operator Ziggo, pay-television broadcaster Telekom Srbija, public broadcaster HRT in Croatia, public broadcaster RTK, and pay-television broadcaster ArtMotion in Kosovo.
In the UK, pay-television broadcaster BT Sport and online retailer Amazon picked up the rights, while pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus and commercial broadcaster M6 secured rights in France.
Image: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
