2018-21 UEFA Club Competitions TV rights

icdg

We won't hear a lot about this until the other side of Christmas, but as I mentioned in another thread this is the big Sports rights sale of 2017.

From a TV point of view the big change is that KO times for the Champions League move to match (almost) the Europa League, with 6:00pm (max of two) and 8:00pm matches in the group stage. This isn't as big a change as it might seem - there was always a small number of early group stage kick offs when Russian teams played at home.

Other changes are minor changes to the competition format, most notably a drop from the Champions League to the Europa League for all league champions eliminated in the qualifying rounds.

The Cush

UEFA press releases - http://www.uefa.org/about-uefa/administration/marketing/news/newsid=2431123.html, http://www.uefa.org/mediaservices/mediareleases/newsid=2430054.html

Evolution of UEFA club competitions for 2018-21 cycle - http://www.uefa.org/mediaservices/mediareleases/newsid=2399126.html

irishfeen

Would be surprised if ITV didn't regain 1st Pick Tuesday games inc. final because UEFA must be worried about the low viewership figures on BT.... I think TV3 might also go for both Tuesday and Wednesday 1st pick games.

irishfeen

irishfeen wrote: »

Would be surprised if ITV didn't regain 1st Pick Tuesday games inc. final because UEFA must be worried about the low viewership figures on BT.... I think TV3 might also go for both Tuesday and Wednesday 1st pick games.

If they don't go to HD on Saorview, I hope to hell they lose the Tuesday night rights, never mind gaining the Wednesday night rights off RTE. Watching the 6 Nations rugby through an Saorview SD generated fogbank come 2018 will be bad enough.....

channelsurfer2

irishfeen wrote: »

Would be surprised if ITV didn't regain 1st Pick Tuesday games inc. final because UEFA must be worried about the low viewership figures on BT.... I think TV3 might also go for both Tuesday and Wednesday 1st pick games.

they wont. Bt paid 300milllion a year and Uefa have said they are happy. Money comes first rather than audience.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-12/european-soccer-tv-deals-expected-to-bring-in-3-4-billion.
see the part where he says that ITV cant compete...."We can’t reserve rights for free-to-air,” Epstein said. “The market dictates where the markets end up. I would love it if ITV comes back with a very competitive offer. But I don’t know how much they could compete with pay TV.”

Harry Palmr

I think UEFA are worried enough about rotten viewing figures to see at least one game from the CL/EL go to ITV

mikeym

Virgin Media customers won't be happy if Eir get exclusive Europa League rights and Second Pick Champions League games.

Would Tv3 bid for the Europa League matches?

icdg

mikeym wrote: »

Virgin Media customers won't be happy if Eir get exclusive Europa League rights and Second Pick Champions League games.

That's exactly what they have at the moment. In fact they can show all Champions League games, though (whether it's written into their contract or not I'm unsure) the RTE/TV3 pick is not broadcast on a Eir branded channel, only by BT Sport.

Would Tv3 bid for the Europa League matches?

Wouldn't rule it out, they had the first pick rights for a good few years. However I'd imagine an accommodation would be written in for the Eir/BT deal this time - I don't think we'd see a return to BT matches being blocked.

Harry Palmr

Bump article on the next round of CL and EL rights - BT sounding out FTA partners which frankly they need to - I'm sure Channel 5 would love a game - any game while ITV4 would also be enthusiastic. ITV would be more tricky maybe as they'd want a Prem side every match week but would they pay the premium that would demand?

https://www.theguardian.com/business...hts-sky-sports

BT has fired the first shot in the battle for Champions League football, saying it is determined to keep a grip on the TV rights to European football’s blue-riband club competition and accusing arch-rival Sky of having too much dominance over pay-TV sports.

BT is understood to have “done the rounds” of potential free-to-air partners, with Sky set to do the same, ahead of first round bids being submitted to the governing body Uefa in March.

Champions League sponsors have expressed concerns about the lack of exposure under BT’s £900m exclusive deal, compared with a pay/free deal with Sky and ITV which provided larger audiences.

channelsurfer2

I wonder will they actually go for ITV in the end if money talks? If I am reading it right there will be 4 first choice matches (2 on Tuesday and 2 on Wednesday) so that might enable some form of BT/ITV or Sky/ITV bid as minor parties.