The UEFA Champions League is regarded as the pinnacle of European football where the very best in the sport play to dominate headlines and often leave a mark on history.
Understandably, the vast appeal of the global entity that is the UEFA Champions League is demonstrated in its broadcast reach, which stretches from Europe across territories in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, North America and Oceania.
Hence, to remedy the overwhelming demand on the Champions League pull, UEFA sells the broadcast rights to interested companies on a three-season basis including various packages available to bidders, with a balance being reached between free and pay television.
The European football governing body then distributes the proceeds from these broadcast, commercial rights and tickets/hospitality to the participating clubs using a complex financial distribution model.
So how expensive are the current TV Rights deals?
UK pay-TV broadcaster, BT Sport, agreed a $1.5 billion deal to retain exclusive broadcast rights to the Champions League, Europa League as well as the new third-tier Europa Conference League from 2021 to 2024. This contract represents the most lucrative ever for European football and with their flagship product, BT Sport now shows every live game and highlights in the UK.
After paying $102.99 million upon winning the bid, the broadcaster will then make six payments ranging from $154.48 million to $257.48 million between August 2021 and February 2024.
In the United States, CBS and Univision secured the broadcast rights for the European competitions with a combined sum of $140 million per season, an increase on the previous $100 million deal. It mirrors an ever-growing demand for the ever-evolving content.
Elsewhere, Qatar-based pay-TV network BeIN Sports also renewed its Middle East and North Africa (MENA) broadcast partnership for the Champions League in a $200 million deal per year for the 2021/22 to 2023/24 cycle. This agreement includes rights to the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Europa Conference League and the UEFA Women’s Champions League and will be aired across their vast regions in Arabic, English and French languages.
Indeed, the deal extends a 12-year relationship between European football’s governing body and BeIN which will also see the broadcaster have exclusive rights to the European national team tournaments organized by UEFA.
At the end of every UCL season, 15% of the total Champions League income is allocated in accordance with the quota of each TV market represented by the clubs taking part in the competition. To achieve this, half of the amount representing the value of each market will be shared among the clubs depending on their performance in the previous domestic campaign; the other half will be paid in proportion to the number of games each club plays in the current Champions League season.
How significant are the proceeds from TV Rights allocations?
These TV rights deals are essential to keep the show – and clubs – running as football is incomplete without the fans, the stadium ticket revenue is never enough and the payment from millions of other viewers around the globe represents a massive windfall.
Par for the course, UEFA’s Financial Report for 2017/18 showed that 81% of its revenue came from broadcasting rights.
For the 2019/20 season, the available sum of €292m was distributed to clubs participating from the group stage onwards; while an estimated €300.3m will be distributed at the end of the ongoing 2021/22 season.
However, UEFA’s revenue from club competitions was €416.5m lower than anticipated due to the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic in 2019/20. This means the body will deduct some of the total €2.732bn set to be distributed among the clubs competing in Europe for the 2021/22 campaign.
From the footballing perspective and certainly from a commercial standpoint, the UEFA Champions League is where every player and club wants to be. The jaw-dropping deals being brokered for TV rights shows the exponential growth the European game keeps making.
The most popular stage of the most popular sport in the world is a phenomenon everyone simply cannot get enough of.
