BT SPORT has extended its TV rights for the Champions League and Europa League until 2021

[davieG]

BT SPORT has extended its TV rights for the Champions League and Europa League until 2021 in a deal worth £1.2BILLION.

By JAMES DICKENSON

PUBLISHED: 08:59, Mon, Mar 6, 2017 | UPDATED: 09:10, Mon, Mar 6, 2017

 

 

BT Sport wrestled control of televising live European football away from Sky Sports in 2015 under the terms of an £897m deal agreed in 2013.

And BT Sport will continue as the place to watch the Champions League and Europa League in the UK for the next three seasons.

BT Sport is a paid subscription service but have revealed they will make clips, weekly highlights, UEFA's magazine show and both finals available to watch for FREE on social media.

The new deal will also allow BT Sport to host Champions League 'double-header' nights - back-to-back matches during the group stage with live games kicking off at both 6pm and 8pm.

 

The broadcaster will pay around £394m a year for the rights, a hefty increase on the current £299m a year deal.

The current top four leagues in Europe are Spain, Germany, England and Italy.

Under the present system, England, Germany and Spain have three places each while their fourth-placed teams must win a play-off to qualify.

As it stands, Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester City and Liverpool will qualify for next season’s Champions League, with Arsenal and Manchester United in line for the Europa League.

 

The Champions league is Europe's elite club competition

BT consumer CEO John Petter said: "We are delighted to have renewed these rights. The UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League are two of the best competitions in the world and we would like to thank UEFA for choosing us as their exclusive broadcast partner in the UK.

“The UEFA Champions League is due to get even stronger and we are delighted that fans will be able to enjoy two live matches a night for the first time."

Guy Laurent Epstein, UEFA marketing director, said: "UEFA is delighted to have extended the relationship with BT Sport for a further three seasons, taking our partnership to 2021.

"BT Sport has proved to be an innovative broadcast partner, pushing the boundaries and covering the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League in new ways. 

“BT have delivered strong audiences in the UK and we are excited about their future plans for the use of social media which will engage a growing fanbase that consumes sport in different ways."

[StanSP]

which season will kick-off times change to 6pm & 8pm?

[StanSP]

Also, what happens if one of the top 4 win the CL? And what happens if a side wins the CL that doesn't finish top 4? Does 4th spot lose their place? Do CL or EL winners automatically go in to next season's competition? 

[m4DD0gg]

Would rather Sky have it, BT are horrendous and i flatly refuse to pay the extra money to see champions league, even in this unique season.

[cc_star]

Dig deep... They've paid 35% more than last time

 

Unless we win it & continue subscription for another season, I'm cancelling BT Sport anyway, the price rises over the past year or two and presumable forthcoming rises are a joke

 

I've only continued it this season for us

[Guest Foxin_mad]

So that's the line rental going up again then to subsidise the people who wont pay the higher subscriptions to this.

[Gerard]

9 minutes ago, StanSP said:

Also, what happens if one of the top 4 win the CL? And what happens if a side wins the CL that doesn't finish top 4? Does 4th spot lose their place? Do CL or EL winners automatically go in to next season's competition? 

 

Any country can have a maximum of 4 teams who qualify for the group stages and one for the qualifying round.

 

The guaranteed group stage qualifiers are:

CL winners

Europa League winners

Top two in PL

 

So if we won the CL and Man Utd won the EL and finished 6th then the 3rd place team in the PL would have to go through the qualifying round and the 4th place team in the EL.

 

Wouldn't it be funny if all that happened and Tottenham finished 4th. 

[Finnegan]

More Michael Owen 

[Munshi]

Was so much better on Sky and ITV

[StanSP]

Am I the only one that is quite satisfied with what package I get with BT?! 

 

Line rental paid in advance so got that discounted.

£42 in total for Entertainment Plus, BT Sport and Sky Sports 1 & 2. Includes HD extra for free (is for 6 months and about to run out). The SS1 & SS2 is an add on for £22 and can be cancelled any time if I wanted to at no extra cost.

 

I can't get anything like that on Sky or Virgin or any other providers that cheap??

I can understand there's a little bit of a price hike but for the amount of football (both in UK as well as Europe) that BT cover, it's worth it for me. Can also understand that some of you may have more expensive packages but do you think there won't be any price rises by other providers either??

[Vacamion]

 

They actually give G Hoddle and M Owen money to talk about football.

 

When City go out of Europe, BT Sport can kiss my hairy ones.

[NZ_Foxile]

According to the BBC this morning, the deal means that BT have exclusive rights to all Champions League coverage. So there won't even be highlights on terrestrial TV anymore 

[davieG]

The worst thing about footy on the tv is the splitting of the coverage of the PL to two suppliers and all supposedly for the customers benefit to provide competition. That isn't the case though as they show different games so the customer, if they want to see all the games have to pay two subscriptions.

 

Thank you EU!

 

We'd be much better off with match by match pay per view or let Sky and BT show all the games and we can then choose the best package.

 

Apologies for the deviation from the CL

[Strokes]

2 minutes ago, NZ_Foxile said:

According to the BBC this morning, the deal means that BT have exclusive rights to all Champions League coverage. So there won't even be highlights on terrestrial TV anymore 

BT will do free to air highlights.

[davieG]

3 minutes ago, NZ_Foxile said:

According to the BBC this morning, the deal means that BT have exclusive rights to all Champions League coverage. So there won't even be highlights on terrestrial TV anymore 

" BT Sport is a paid subscription service but have revealed they will make clips, weekly highlights, UEFA's magazine show and both finals available to watch for FREE on social media"

 

You'll have to settle for social media..

[yorkie1999]

Just now, davieG said:

" BT Sport is a paid subscription service but have revealed they will make clips, weekly highlights, UEFA's magazine show and both finals available to watch for FREE on social media"

 

You'll have to settle for social media..

Or kodi

[Strokes]

1 minute ago, davieG said:

The worst thing about footy on the tv is the splitting of the coverage of the PL to two suppliers and all supposedly for the customers benefit to provide competition. That isn't the case though as they show different games so the customer, if they want to see all the games have to pay two subscriptions.

 

Thank you EU!

 

We'd be much better off with match by match pay per view or let Sky and BT show all the games and we can then choose the best package.

 

Apologies for the deviation from the CL

Totally agree, I would much prefer a PPV system. I rarely watch other teams so it would suit me perfect.

 

[z-layrex]

Ill be cancelling bt sport anyway, unless we are in the CL next season that is...

[AyewJoking]

now tv day pass, does it cover bt sport?

[StanSP]

23 minutes ago, Royston. said:

now tv day pass, does it cover bt sport?

nope, just Sky

[TheSomersetFox]

i'll never pay to listen to Jake Humphrey 

[EGBFitness]

FFS. 

 

BT coverage is trash and hate how champions league is only shown through them now. 

 

Bring back the days of Sky & ITV, or atleast let us watch the final on ****ing tv like the rest of the world and not on ****ing YouTube! I refuse to pay for BT. 

[Beliall]

I have hated BT sport since they took my ESPN sub I paid an extra £3 for  as part of my SKY to watch baseball, replaced it with their bullshit package and tried to sell it back to me for 4x as muuch

[foxes21]

Sky and BT are on the way out imo. Multinationals like Amazon, Google or Virgin could easily outbid them for the rights. Legal matchday streams online is the future I think.

[Guest Sharpe's Fox]

Wouldn't have been that arsed if ITV had got a few games. Bollocks to BT though the greedy bastards CL football should only be on a fringe channel. Thankfully Kodi exists.