Amazon Snags Key Champions League U.K. Rights, Shared With BT, From 2024
Amazon has scored in a big way in the U.K.
The streaming giant, which has been steadily building out its sports offering for years, has secured live U.K. rights to the UEFA Champions League, which it will split with telco giant BT.
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Under the new deal, Amazon has secured the rights to exclusively broadcast the Tuesday night top-pick matches, through to the semi-finals, for three seasons from 2024/25. This will amount to roughly 20 games in total. Meanwhile, BT will retain the rest of the rights to the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League.
The streaming giant has said that its batch of matches will always feature an English team “during the group stages, and whether they have qualified, through to the semi-finals.” Meanwhile, the BBC has the rights to broadcast Champions League highlights on Wednesdays.
Altogether, the whole package of rights is believed to be valued at around $1.8 billion. Around $241 million of this total is believed to have come from Amazon and the BBC, according to Enders Analysis.
The pact marks a tectonic but strategic shift for BT, which has held the exclusive U.K. rights to the premier European football competition for close to a decade. Amazon’s coup comes as BT Sport joins forces with Warner Bros. Discovery to launch a premium sports venture in the U.K. and Ireland later this year — a move that’s still subject to regulatory approval, and could be more palatable by relinquishing some Champions League rights.
Although Amazon was victorious in the U.K., the platform lost out on French rights to Canal+, which outbid the streaming giant to win the full rights package to the Champions League. The Vivendi-backed pay-TV operator paid a reported $1.5 billion — 28% higher than the pricetag for the current set of rights shared by Canal+ and BeIN.
U.K. media consultancy Enders Analysis has said that Amazon’s U.K. Champions League play is “consistent with Amazon’s habit of taking positions left empty by incumbents rather than challenging them in inflationary bids.”
Paolo Pescatore, a London-based tech, media and telco analyst, observes that “more players means fragmentation, but this should not be a huge issue. Amazon is now establishing itself as a key provider of sports in the U.K. as it continues to steadily beef up its programming. This will help drive Prime subscriptions and sales even further with more live sport through the year.”
Pescatore warns, however, that while UEFA has managed to grow the value of Champions League rights by opening up the tender and packages to more players, “this will not go down with fans if they’re forced to fork out more during these unprecedented times with the higher cost of living.”
In addition to the U.K., Prime Video broadcasts UEFA Champions League football in Germany and Italy. The service also airs Premier League football in the U.K.; Autumn Nations Series rugby union in the U.K. and Ireland; U.S. Open, ATP and WTA Tour tennis in the U.K. and Ireland; Ligue 1 football and Roland-Garros tennis in France; and New Zealand Cricket in India.
From September, Prime Video will broadcast NFL Thursday Night Football in the U.S.
Alex Green, MD of Prime Video Sport Europe, said: “The addition of UEFA Champions League football is a truly momentous moment for Prime Video in the U.K. Since 2018, we’ve seen millions of Prime members in the UK. enjoy live sport on Prime Video, and it’s that passion and energy that has led us to this exciting next step. We can’t wait to bring fans the headline fixture of European football’s most prestigious competition every Tuesday and we’ll have more details to share about our broadcast in the future.”
Guy-Laurent Epstein, UEFA marketing director, added: “Prime Video is a valued UEFA Champions League media partner in Italy and Germany and we are excited to be extending this relationship to the U.K., another major UEFA club competition market. Amazon has ambitious plans across the global sporting industry and we look forward to the innovative ways in which it will broadcast European club football in the U.K. market.”
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