UEFA today announced the date for the opening of the public invitation to tender for the TV rights connected to the UEFA European Football Championship 2008.

The official publication of the tender will take place on Monday 18th October. Interested and qualified parties (such as broadcasters, agencies and representative bodies experienced in the distribution of such rights) should request the invitation to tender documents directly from UEFA as of Monday 18 October, either via e-mail on marketing@uefa.ch or via fax on +41-22-994 3726.

UEFA EURO 2004 proved to be a hugely successful tournament from a televisual and commercial point of view, dominating European prime time in June and early July with 50% to 90% market shares across major television markets for live match coverage. The UK, Germany and Italy all produced audiences in excess of 20 million for live matches. There was also significant interest from the Far East, with live audiences in Japan reaching over 7 million for the early kick-offs, despite the fact they were screened at one am in Japan.

UEFA EURO 2004 provided the highest audiences of the year so far across many of the major European markets, claiming the top audience in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.

The top 6 audiences in Germany, the top 5 in France, the top 3 in the UK, the top 2 in Italy and the top 1 in Spain were all for UEFA EURO 2004 broadcasts.

The TV coverage of the event has grown enormously since EURO 2000, with over 27,000 hours of UEFA EURO 2004 programming representing a 157% increase on the previous total.

Commenting on this announcement UEFA CEO, Lars-Christer Olsson, said: ‘These impressive audience figures and the significant growth in coverage hours merely confirm the enormous public demand for the broadcast of live football events. With this in mind I am very confident that we will see a high level of interest in acquiring the TV rights for the forthcoming European Football Championship, UEFA EURO 2008 to be held jointly in Austria and Switzerland.’

For more details contact:

Uefa Media Services
Tel: +41 22 99 44 55 9