BT Sport Extends Champions League Rights

UK Pay-TV broadcaster BT Sport has secured an extension to its rights deals for Europe’s two premier club competitions.

The new deal will see BT Sport retain rights to the UEFA Champions League and Europa League until 2021. The three-year deal is worth £1.2bn, a substantial increase on the £897m BT paid in 2015.

The new deal gives BT Sport exclusivity across all live games and highlights for the first time – meaning there will be no weekly highlights shown on free-to-air broadcaster ITV.

Europe’s top four domestic leagues are to be guaranteed four places each in the group stages of the Champions League from the 2018-19 season. European governing body UEFA currently rank Spain, Germany, England and Italy as the top four leagues in the continent.

Other changes to the competition will see ‘double-header’ nights in the group stage, with matches kicking off at both 18:00 and 20:00 UK time.