BT bags Champions League for $1.5bn

BT Sport will continue to show Champions League football matches exclusively live in the UK until 2021 after again beating rival pay TV outfit Sky to the rights to Europe’s premier club football competition.

BT announced today that it had signed a three-year extension to its current deal, which began in 2015 and was due to expire next year, for £1.2bn (US$1.47bn), working out at £394m for each season of the deal.

That’s an increase of £303m on the £897m the telco paid for the rights over a three-year period back in 2013. At the time that was seen as a major coup for the fledgling BT Sport channels, as the competition had previously been split between Sky and terrestrial channel ITV.

Sky had long held a monopoly on live football in the UK, broadcasting all but a handful of the country’s Premier League and Football League matches exclusively as well as the Champions League, in which the best teams from all the top divisions across Europe compete.

BT has since acquired rights to Premier League matches in the Saturday evening slot, as well as taking rights to European rugby competitions and The Ashes cricket series.

Sky entered the bidding for the Champions League rights again this time, and ITV remained in the picture with the competition’s organiser, UEFA, reportedly keen to restore its presence to terrestrial television in the UK after three years exclusively via pay.

But BT has secured the renewal, albeit with the promise that the finals of both the Champions League, and its junior competition, the Europa League, will be broadcast free-to-air via social media.

BT will also air highlights on its linear and digital channels for free, meaning that for the first time ITV will not even have match highlights to broadcast on terrestrial television.

The new deal comes into effect for the 2018/19 football season.

John Petter, Consumer CEO at BT, said: “We are delighted to have renewed these rights. The UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League are two of the best competitions in the world and we would like to thank UEFA for choosing us as their exclusive broadcast partner in the UK.

“The UEFA Champions League is due to get even stronger and we are delighted that fans will be able to enjoy two live matches a night for the first time.”