Champions League
UEFA Sparks Bidding War Among Streaming Giants For Champions League Coverage
European football officials are urging global streaming platforms to compete for broadcasting rights to the Champions League in the 2027–33 cycle.
UC3, a joint venture between UEFA and European Football Clubs (formerly the European Club Association), will oversee the process.
The tender for the rights opens on October 13 across Europe’s top five markets the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
This marks the first Champions League rights cycle to be managed by American agency Relevent, which took over from UEFA’s long-time partner TEAM Marketing in 2024.
UEFA target and bidding war
UEFA and Europe’s leading clubs are targeting more than €5 billion (£4.3 billion) in annual media revenue from their club competitions. To achieve that goal, Relevent plans to attract major global streaming services such as Apple or Netflix.
The agency hopes one of them will secure exclusive worldwide rights to at least one Champions League match per season, inspired by Netflix’s successful Christmas Day NFL broadcast.
But Relevent will also invite UEFA’s current media partners to bid for rights in more than one market, and for longer terms than the three-year deals that have been standard in Europe for decades.
The new approach marks a departure from the European Commission’s previous policy of enforcing short-term broadcast deals to encourage competition.
Media companies have long opposed that rule, arguing that frequent bidding rounds are both costly and risky. Relevant views securing Netflix’s involvement as a major opportunity to elevate the competition’s global reach.
However, more attainable targets could be DAZN, which owns global rights to the first two Club World Cups, or Amazon, which already streams weekly Champions League games in Germany, Italy, and the UK.
Netflix screens exclusive NFL games on Christmas Day and enjoyed success with the Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul exhibition boxing match earlier this year. It has also secured the exclusive broadcast rights in the United States for the 2027 and 2031 editions of the Women’s World Cup.
YouTube streamed an opening week NFL game exclusively earlier this season, while Apple has a 10-year global rights deal with Major League Soccer and DAZN picked up the global rights to the Club World Cup this summer.
Amazon Prime Video currently holds first-pick rights for Champions League matches in Germany, Italy, the UK, and Ireland.
Meanwhile, Disney secured an agreement earlier this year to stream every Women’s Champions League game through the 2029–30 season a first for the platform.
Ceferin’s speech about the streaming
UEFA president, Aleksander Ceferin said in a speech to the assembly, “More to share also means more to create. Here, UC3 is the next step. Through this joint venture, the game will grow. And with Relevent at our side, we have the strongest team to make it happen.
“Together we are building something unique, with real ambition. To deliver the most engaging football.
”The most innovative. The most accessible. To expand our core revenue streams. To inspire new fans to follow our competitions.
”To drive engagement with new audiences especially in an ever-changing media and streaming rights landscape. And to make the most of digital platforms that bring the game closer than ever.
”This is how we will strengthen our clubs and keep European football at the very top.”
UC3 co-managing director Guy-Laurent Epstein said in a release announcing the news, “This new strategy reflects our ambition to lead the next phase of growth for UEFA men’s club competitions.
”By bringing a fresh approach to key markets and introducing innovative new packages, we are setting a new benchmark for how football is brought to fans around the world.”
UEFA ended its 34-year partnership with Swiss-based TEAM Marketing and announced a deal with Relevent in March.
Relevent facilitated a six-year, $1.5 billion agreement for the Champions League rights in the United States with Paramount in 2022.
