BT Sport pays £1.2 billion for blanket UEFA football rights extension

Updating UK media this morning, BT Sport has confirmed that it has extended its coverage of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League competitions until 2021 in a deal worth £1.2 billion.

Agreeing new terms with UEFA, BT Sport will become the sole broadcaster of Champions League content which will include match day highlights. The decision sees UK terrestrial broadcaster ITV Sport lose its ‘Champions League Highlights’ show.

BT Sport governance detailed that it had won a competitive ‘auction process’ to secure the UEFA ‘European football package rights’. In 2013 the digital sports channel owned by mobile and broadband operator BT, entered the UK sports market paying £900 million for European football coverage from 2015-2018.

The new deal further sees BT Sport become the sole distributor of UEFA European match ‘clips & highlights’ on social media channels for UK viewers.

BT Sports streamed both finals last year on YouTube for the first time, taking the number of people who watched BT’s live coverage of the finals to more than twelve million.

John Petter, Consumer CEO at BT, commented on the UEFA broadcast rights extension  “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.”