Uefa Champions/ Europa/ Conference League rights 2024-27: Premier, VMTV & RTE

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Sports Extra (TNT/Premier).

mikeym

https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2023/10/12/premier-sports-scoops-up-uefa-competition-rights-for-ireland/

icdg

Well, I didn’t expect the LiveScore experiment to last, but that’s an interesting one. VM say they’re still in the hunt for some rights.

RTE have retained a package it seems.

Interesting this was announced so early, previously Ireland was always one of the last territories to be announced.

Digifriendly

This will annoy terrestial only soccer viewers in N. Ireland with Saorview as they will be unable to watch CL and EL matches.

Premier Sports can be added under 'other channels' by those with Sky and can be watched if you subscribe to Viaplay but programmes cannot be recorded.

Dodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121233732#Comment_121233732

And to be fair it hasn’t been “announced” as such, it’s more Premier getting ahead of the announcement

icdg

I think to be fair it’s been reported in a number of sources, and there’s not always an official release from UEFA or Team in respect of the smaller markets.

Probably warrants a new thread, so I’ll split it off.

Big scoop for Premier Sports it has to be said. So has VMTV lost the rights completely for the EL & ECL games on Thursday nights? Blows a bit of a hole in their schedule if so.

icdg

Not clear, at the moment VMTV haven’t won any rights.

One source is suggesting that RTE will be moving back to Wednesday nights and will have first choice but that’s not clear either.

I suppose what must be remembered is that the new formats will mean more games with each team playing 8 games over ten weeks (there’ll be one “exclusive” week where some Champions League games will be played on the Thursday instead of Europa & Conference League games) so the rights might not look exactly how they used to.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121243659#Comment_121243659

True. But as regards the traditional Tuesday and Wednesday night fixtures, if the Digital TV Europe source is right and Premier Sports has first pick on both nights for the CL, then it's likely a majority of games involving English clubs will end up behind a paywall whether it's Premier Sports or TNT.

This The42.ie piece has a differing view to the Digital TV Europe article. Suggests Premier Sports has first pick rights for Tuesday nights with RTE expecting to have them for Wednesday. Also says VMTV are currently in negotiations with UFEA over what they might get. So we will probably have to wait for the official UEFA press release to see who has what.

https://www.the42.ie/irish-champions-league-rights-2024-6194583-Oct2023/

Was completely unaware of this (actually happened in July 2022), but Amazon have been awarded first pick Tuesday night TV rights for the Champions League in the UK starting next season. Strange however that the latest UEFA rights document only mentions BT (TNT) and the BBC as having been given UK rights.

https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/0288-19bf669d5a94-fef326f1a3ad-1000/2024-27_ucl_media_rights_sales_2023.12.21.pdf

icdg

VMTV have been awarded a package of 166 games comprising 4 FTA games each week of the league phase, two each on Tuesday and Wednesday nights plus four games, two each on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, on the VMTV More channel that is only available to VM cable customers.

Quite clearly that’s not a satisfactory postion for the majority of us that don’t take VM cable, but similar to the last-but-one rights deal where the old VMTV Sport channel had the pay TV rights (although there was a short lived deal with eir that went belly up after not too long unfortunately as part of wider rows between the two).

Remaining questions:

(1) This deal is wider than VMTV’s current deal and it seems to encompass a pay package as well as FTA. With that in mind what exactly have Premier won? They have first choice on Tuesday and at least one game on Wednesday but the rest is unclear?

(2) Where if anything do RTE figure in this? Reports that they had won a Wednesday game but nothing official ever announced?

icdg

Obligatory whatever it is tweets are called now:

https://twitter.com/VMSportIE/status/1757400109833191746?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

mike2084

Anyone know if the TNT games will be still viewable here?

icdg

No announcement on that afaik. Although the UK rights for the Champions League have always included non-exclusive rights in Ireland (there was a period in the early 2010s when the Europa League rights didn’t, however).

I’m wondering where the 166 game figure for VMTV is coming from through. Eight games a week over eight weeks only gets me to 64, and there aren’t enough knockout games to make up another 102 even if VMTV had every single one of them. I think that 166 game figure must be wrong as it could only be true if VMTV had exclusive rights to the entire centrally sold portion of the competition. That itself can’t be true either because Premier Sports have already announced they have won a package and although there’s been no formal announcement it appears RTE are still in the mix.

TAFKAlawhec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121769576#Comment_121769576

I wonder if the 166 figure includes Europa League & Europa Conference League games? Otherwise, as you say the 166 game total makes no sense from what I can see.

Nevertheless, even if the picture is in smeary SD it's good news for some of us cheapskate nordies that don't want to shell out to TNT!

icdg

Maybe, but I understood Premier had that exclusively, and the announcement from VMTV only mentioned the Champions League.

ArmaniJeanss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121769576#Comment_121769576

I think 166 is the amount of matches they have the rights to pick from, not the amount of matches they will show. So it is fundamentally a misleading bit of maths. They will pick their 64 matches (or however many it ultimately is) from the 166 games which aren't first Tuesday/Wednesday picks of the primary broadcaster.

It's explained better here (French language, so you'll need to click translate). You may notice the magic 166 figure is defined here. European Football Cups: three questions about the next fight for TV rights in France (francetvinfo.fr)

icdg

OK, so if Google Translate is telling me right the 166 games are the games on Tuesday and Wednesday, after the first choice have been made? And the broadcaster with first choice on a Wednesday also gets the small number of Thursday games (played Thursday 19th September in 2024).

So in terms of the centrally contracted phase there is the following

Play off round: 14 games (7 two-legged ties)

League stage: 18 games each week for 8 weeks = 144 games

Knockout play off round and R16 - both 16 games (8 two legged ties) = 32 games

Quarter finals eight games

Semi finals four games

One final.

Total of 203 games in tournament.

That would seem to give VMTV the lions share, but not the top picks?

ArmaniJeanss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121794048#Comment_121794048

That's exactly my understanding - with the obvious caveats of google translate and the article being almost 2 years old. But the 166-game reference kinda seals it for me. (On closer examination VM say they have the rights to 166 games, not that they will show 166 games. Quite disingenuous).

It's a decent enough deal really (if you have VM cable), especially if RTE end up with the first choice on 1 of the nights.

Updated UEFA TV rights document dated 5 February. Still only mentions Premier Sports as being awarded anything for the Republic of Ireland.

https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/028a-1a1ba9fa08f4-baed2019a252-1000/2024-27_ucl_media_rights_sales_2024.02.05.pdf

Document for Europa League/Conference League also dated the 5 February. No mention of the RoI.

https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/028a-1a1ba9315557-500e109b1326-1000/2024-27_uel_uconfl_media_rights_sales_2024.02.5.pdf

iseegirls

Nice of that French document to explain it a bit better. Could possibly see Virgin Media just using VM More and VM Four maybe fully replaying those other matches that they don't show live for the few days after.

Will VM have the CL final?

icdg

Not clear. Premier do, however, so read into that what you will.

Another update of the UEFA rights document dated 26 February. Once again it's just Premier Sports listed for RoI CL rights. Maybe they are the primary rights holder and the document doesn't deal with potential sub-letting of these rights to other broadcasters?

https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/028a-1a46319ee2fa-e5376b1351a0-1000/2024-27_ucl_media_rights_sales_2024.02.26.pdf

Europa League/Conference League document also dated 26 February has no rights (as of yet) for the RoI.

https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/028a-1a463531bffc-a32d6392aa51-1000/2024-27_uel_uconfl_media_rights_sales_2024.02.26.pdf

icdg

It doesn’t mention Amazon having acquired first choice Tuesday rights in the UK either though. Not sure what the reason is for these omissions.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121841240#Comment_121841240

I took a look at the previous Champions League rights document (2021-24) and for the RoI, it lists RTE and Saran Media International as the rights holders. Never heard of Saran Media before tbh. Are they related to Virgin Media in anyway or did they sub-let the rights to VM I wonder?

https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/0272-148325d1ace1-95515eb36a23-1000/2021-24_ucl_and_usc_media_rights_sales_2022.02.23.pdf

lertsnim

Saran Media International are linked to Livescore as they brokered the Champions League deal for them.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121848293#Comment_121848293

Ah, ok.

icdg

Saran Media International now seem to be listed on the 2024-27 documents as Irish rights holders for both Champions and Europa/Conference Leagues. Odd since I hadn’t heard anything about LiveScore renewing rights?

https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/028b-1a566cbc0cb3-fbdd84c4c8c7-1000/2024-27_ucl_media_rights_sales_2024.03.05.pdf

https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/028b-1a566d2b95ba-3807fcdd3381-1000/2024-27_uel_uconfl_media_rights_sales_2024.03.05.pdf