Champions League media rights 2027-30

Dodge · 30-04-2026 04:41PM

Republic of Ireland

- Premier Sports (UCL Tuesday first pick match, Tuesday highlights and UCL Final co-exclusively)

- RTE (UCL Wednesday first pick match, Wednesday highlights and UCL Final co-exclusively)

- Sky (all remaining UCL matches co-exclusively and all UEL/UECL rights)

- Amazon (co-exclusive rights to UCL Tuesday first pick package) *

- Paramount+ (co-exclusive rights to UCL Wednesday first pick package and all remaining UCL matches and highlights including UCL Final) *

* Denotes packages awarded during UK process

thomasking22008 · 30-04-2026 05:10PM

more like everything will be paywall for champion league fixture seem too much spent diseny for over 100e for year same as sky too costly ?

iseegirls · 30-04-2026 05:42PM

Odd for Sky to pick up just the Irish rights for the rest of the matches outside the top picks that PS and RTE will show?

I'm guessing it won't be going into the usual Sky Sports channels {so as not to disrupt the UK listings} , and will be put on a separate section on their Player / Now TV?

AJB39 · 30-04-2026 06:07PM

Virgin Media are definitely the big losers here having covered the Champions League here to one extent or another for a good few years. Sky between this deal and their deal for the Europa and Conference Leagues have definitely found a renewed interest in European football which they haven’t covered in many years.

icdg · 30-04-2026 06:08PM

No press release from Sky to confirm. However, here’s UC3’s (contains details of a number of other recent awards).

https://www.uc3.com/news-and-sales/news/02a4-2083707c74e6-97b102a1d96e-1000/

A few points then. FTA coverage is down to one game on a Wednesday on RTE, carrying on the continent-wide trend of UEFA moving to pay TV platforms. RTE get first pick on Wednesday in their own right, ending the odd share/sublicense arrangement with Premier. VMTV out completely. Confirmation as usual that the UK rights include non exclusive ROI rights.

And then there’s Sky.

So the Thursday rights first, that’s more straightforward and mirrors what they’ve won in the UK, so they’ll be carrying that coverage in both jurisdictions.

But the Champions League? That’s the odd one. So previously, Sky did a stint (2015-18 I think) as holder of the FAPL 3pm rights in Ireland. The conventional wisdom was that they got very little subscription benefit from doing so. So that makes this deal interesting as it’s only their second time wading into ROI-only rights. How they’ll deliver this will be interesting.

lertsnim · 30-04-2026 06:22PM

.....

lertsnim · 30-04-2026 06:24PM

I'm surprised that Sky is non exclusive

Round tower · 30-04-2026 06:50PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124433009#Comment_124433009

Fire Stick for a round €70/year

icdg · 30-04-2026 06:52PM

No discussion of piracy here please.

icdg · 30-04-2026 06:54PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124433324#Comment_124433324

It all is. That’s to allow the UK broadcasts also go out in Ireland.

Of course, Sky have both the UK and Irish rights to Europa/Conference Leagues.

Dodge · 30-04-2026 07:15PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124433381#Comment_124433381

Are we sure there will be Sky UK broadcasts of the champions league? They weren’t part of the UK announcement late last year. Paramount and Amazon were (and are mentioned in the Ireland release today too)

I think it’s a wait and see situation as we have no idea how paramount will operate these rights yet

channelsurfer2 · 30-04-2026 07:39PM

The vmtv comnent is a right whinge at rte spending money on it instead of saying they didnt bid enough for it..

channelsurfer2 · 30-04-2026 07:40PM

There are no uk sky champions league rights.

icdg · 30-04-2026 08:10PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124433434#Comment_124433434

No and i didn’t meant there would be - I was referring to the fact that UK broadcasts on Paramount+ and Prime Video would be available here.

Sky will be carrying the Europa and Conference Leagues in both UK and Ireland though.

AJB39 · 30-04-2026 09:16PM

A statement from Virgin Media confirming they’ve lost their rights.
https://x.com/VMSportIE/status/2049888153855500357

iseegirls · 30-04-2026 10:54PM

VMTVs rights in this round weren't great anyway. They have only had Liverpool once live in the 2 years and that was a dead rubber game where they also showed the other goals from the 15 other games.

They've also given up on showing the extra games they had the rights to when they shut down Virgin Media More.

Similar to their international rights, they really got an odd arrangement for them.

However, it allows VMTV to continue to insert in more ITV programming across their channels. Youd be hard pressed to look at VM2 and VM3 schedules and not immediately think they are ITV channels due to the amount of of their programming on it and the lack of Irish programming.

channelsurfer2 · 30-04-2026 11:29PM

I wonder did vmtv even consider that sky would be in the bidding for rights? The fact that rte kept fta is good but must have cost a fair bit of their sports budget.

Mayo and Louth · 08-05-2026 11:10AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124433434#Comment_124433434

Depending on how the Paramount takeover of Warner Bros Discovery turns out, there's the possibility of Champions League coverage staying on TNT Sports from 2027.

Champions League media rights 2027-30

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