Amazon has secured a groundbreaking deal for the live streaming of Champions League football matches in the UK from 2024, unveiled on Friday by European football’s governing body, UEFA.
The deal, the details of which were leaked ahead of the announcement, will be shared by Amazon’s rights to the UK’s top-ranked European club tournament with current UK ombudsman BT Sport.
BT Sport will join Warner Bros. Discovery Eurosport, later this year, will continue to retain the vast majority of matches from the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Third Tier Conference League tournaments. .
The Amazon deal will give the online giant one game a week, around 20 games a season, in Europe’s premier competition.
The new deal will start in 2024, when the Champions League tournament will go from 32 to 36 teams in a new format, by 2027.
Prime Video has won the right to exclusively stream Tuesday night’s Champions League games. Each match will always feature an English team during the group stage, and when they qualify, they will advance to the semi-finals.
“The addition of UEFA Champions League football is a very important moment for Prime Video in the UK,” said Alex Green, Managing Director of Prime Video Sport Europe.
The Champions League deal is the biggest sports rights deal Amazon has made in the UK and will further defend its position as a major player in the live sports business. In March, the online giant signed an 11-year deal worth $1 billion a year to stream live NFL football games across the United States. Season. Amazon also owns the rights to the Italian Champions League.
Amazon signed its first UK sports deal in 2018, signing an agreement to live stream 20 games from the national football division, the Premier League.
The Champions League deal is another sign of the continued value of premium live sports in the fight for audience loyalty between broadcasters and streamers. Last month, Viacom18, a joint venture between Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, Paramount Global and Bodhi Tree Systems, backed by James Murdoch, paid $2.6 billion (Ir. 3 billion (235.75). Billion) to retain exclusive television rights to the sport for the next five years.
The Champions League, an annual football tournament between Europe’s top clubs, ranks among Europe’s most valuable sporting rights. Last year’s final between England’s Chelsea and Manchester City drew 8.7 million viewers on BT’s main digital channel and its free YouTube channel.
The British public broadcaster (BBC) also won the right to air key events from the Champions League games on its popular game of the day Program.
BT has been the exclusive broadcaster of the Champions League in the UK since 2015, after beating then-co-owners Sky and ITV with a bid of US$1.46 billion (1.2-1.2 billion), a record for the time.
Great Britain is UEFA’s biggest market for Champions League rights, according to media reports, the value of these rights is 41.4-1.5 billion ($1.7 billion).-1 .8 billion) for the 2024-27 cycle. This figure includes the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League tournaments. Amazon and the BBC spent $200 million ($242 million) on Champions League rights, though all parties declined to provide specific figures.
Paolo Pescatore, an analyst at PP Foresight, called Friday’s new deal a “victory for all sides.” He explained, “While BT Sport is losing its exclusivity, it offers long-term confidence by joining a joint venture with Discovery, giving fans more games and less money.” He also emphasized: “More players means fragmentation, but it shouldn’t be a big deal. Amazon is now establishing itself as a major provider of sports in the UK as it continues to steadily increase programming. This will help increase Prime subscriptions and sales with more live sports throughout the year.”
But Pescator also noted: “UEFA was able to increase the value of the rights by opening contests and packages for more players. It won’t hurt fans if they are forced to spend more money at this unprecedented time with higher living costs.” He added: “Surprisingly, the winner is the BBC, who will try to repeat the success of the day’s match. spectators will gain more outdoor sports and make premium European football more accessible.”
“The biggest question mark is (sports broadcast) DAZN and if there was any interest,” Pescatore said. “It will be another blow to their own aspirations in the UK, as some of these rights would have helped their dubious situation, especially given the failed takeover of BT Sport.”
Enders Analysis analyst François Godard said in a statement before the agreement was officially announced: “The BT Sport packages, even if they are less complete than in the current cycle, will be more broken, thanks to the expansion of the Champions League. We imagine that BT Sport’s offer fits into the February deal with Warner Bros. Discovery taking over 50% of the station. In other words, we assume that Warner is completely behind it. ”
He also wrote: “Amazon’s entry into the UK Champions League rights market is not surprising: the platform has already broadcast the competition in Germany and Italy and was a bidder in the French auction (it won Vivendi’s Canal+). ). The move is also in line with Amazon’s habit of accepting jobs vacated by incumbent leaders rather than challenging them with inflationary offers.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
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