CBS, the Paramount-owned US commercial network, has acquired the English-language rights to air European soccer’s top-tier UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL) club competition, for the next five years.
The deal, which starts with the upcoming 2024-25 campaign and runs through the 2029-30 season, will see all 75 UWCL matches per season available on the network’s Paramount+ streaming service, with select matches aired on CBS Sports Network and CBS Sports Golazo Network.
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The UWCL will change formats for the 2025-26 campaign, transitioning to a league phase with 18 teams, followed by a playoff round, which will increase the number of games on offer.
The deal was struck with UC3, the joint venture set up by the UEFA governing body and the European Club Association.
Guy Laurent Epstein, managing director of UC3, has said: “As the competition embarks on an exciting new era, we look forward to CBS Sports delivering its dynamic and insightful coverage to American audiences, showcasing the highest level of women’s club football in its new format over the next five seasons.”
The agreement expands CBS’ portfolio of soccer rights in the US, which now comprises all UEFA competitions, including the men’s Champions League, second-tier Europa League, third-tier Europa Conference League, and Youth League, as well as top-tier women’s NWSL domestic competition, regional Concacaf W Champions Cup, and the Concacaf W Gold Cup.
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By GlobalDataOther soccer properties CBS holds the rights for include Italy's Serie A and Serie A Femminile; the English Football League and Carabao Cup; the United Soccer League; the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup; and the Scottish Professional Football League.
CBS takes over in the US from international subscription streamer DAZN, which held global broadcasting rights for the UWCL in a four-year deal running through the 2024-25 campaign.
During 2023-24, the platform made most of the competition’s group stages available for free, while the 2022-23 final was also shown free-to-air across multiple European territories through a sub-licensing deal with the European Broadcasting Union.
A tender for UCWL rights across Europe and the Americas was launched on January 3 and managed by agency Two Circles, which was appointed as the exclusive media sales agency and sponsorship agency for the UWCL during the 2025-2030 cycle last year.
The pan-American tender included one parcel being made available to every country outside of the US, which had separate packages for English-language and Spanish-language rights.
Rights for the 2025-30 cycle across Europe were secured by media giant Disney last month, which will showcase all 75 UWCL fixtures each season on its Disney+ OTT streaming service, meanwhile.
The games, as well as shoulder content surrounding the fixtures, will be produced by ESPN, the Disney-owned multi-platform sports media business, with commentary offered in multiple languages.
Territories covered by that deal include the UK, which will send a minimum of six participants to the competition in the 2025-26 season (three from England, two from Scotland, and one each from Northern Ireland and Wales.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the umbrella body of free-to-air broadcasters across the continent, will also handle free-to-air distribution of the tournament through a smaller rights package agreed with UC3, one of three that was tendered, which will include broadcasts of the event’s showpiece final, as well as showpiece fixtures featuring teams from EBU members in their respective territories.
Through this package, the EBU will bring one game per match week to public-service broadcasters in close to 30 European territories, including Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Norway, and Sweden.
Elsewhere, BeIN Sports, the major international pay-TV broadcaster, has extended its exclusive deal covering rights to the UWCL, as well as the trio of men’s UEFA European club soccer competitions, for the Middle East, North Africa (MENA), and several markets in Asia.
The exclusive extension runs for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons, and covers the following countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE, Yemen, Iraq, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Timor-Leste, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. In addition, BeIN will cover UEFA club competition action in Indonesia and the Philippines, but not on an exclusive basis.
