Every time a new broadcaster enters the TV rights market it usually means one thing: supporters paying more to watch live football.
And this new deal fragments the landscape again, taking Champions League football away from a broadcaster which holds a portfolio of competitions.
At one stage supporters only needed a Sky subscription for their Premier League football, with ITV owning the Champions League.
But the days of free-to-air live television coverage of Europe’s leading competition are a dim and distant memory.
ITV solely had the rights from the competition’s launch in 1992 until 2003, and then jointly with Sky Sports through to 2015.
Setanta and ESPN had Premier League packages for six years from 2007 to 2013 – but the real game-changer came when BT Sport (now TNT Sports) entered the rights market.
It took live Premier League football in 2013, and two years later started showing Champions League football exclusively – ending live terrestrial coverage.
As of 2027, TNT Sports will lose the Champions League, but fans would still need it for the Saturday lunchtime Premier League package and the FA Cup.
A TV licence costing £14.54 a month is needed to watch live television. A Sky subscription with Sports is £50. Add on TNT Sports for European football, the Premier League and the FA Cup, and that’s another £30.99.
Want the Tuesday night Champions League action on Amazon Prime? That’s another £8.99, but you do get all the other services that come with it.
That’s £89.98, and we’ve not even factored in the cost of Premier Sports or Disney+ who have La Liga and the Women’s Champions League.
From 2027, it is set to get even more expensive. At least the Sky subscription will be better value with exclusive rights to the Europa League and the Conference League.
But with Netflix and DAZN linked with future bids for rights, the picture could fragment even further.
