ITV scores UEFA highlights deal
November 25, 2013
By Colin Mann
A week after it lost the rights to live coverage of UEFA Champions League football, UK commercial PSB ITV has revealed that it will show highlights of Champions League and Europa League matches until 2018 after agreeing a new deal with UEFA.
The deal guarantees coverage of the two competitions on free-to-air television for three years starting from the 2015/2016 season.
Each week during the competitions, ITV will show comprehensive highlights programmes covering all of the week’s Champions League games on Wednesday nights and on Thursday nights for the Europa League.
ITV will also show highlights of both finals and the UEFA Super Cup, as part of the deal. Highlights from both competitions will be made available on itv.com and on mobile.
Niall Sloane, ITV Director of Sport, said: “We are happy to have secured these highlights packages and to be able to bring them to a significant free-to-air viewership. ITV continues to show live coverage and highlights of Champions League and Europa League matches until 2015. It is the exclusive broadcaster of all England’s international World Cup and European Championship qualifying matches and friendlies until 2018. ITV also shows the FA Cup until the end of the 2013/2014 season.”
ITV and BSkyB, who currently share live coverage of Champions League, were outbid by UK telco BT for a package of live coverage of all games in both competitions in a €1 billion + deal.