ITV in Champions League talks with BT
January 13, 2020
ITV is in talks to acquire a package of Champions League games from current rights holder BT Sport, according to a report in The Sunday Times.
ITV, the FTA commercial broadcaster, was unsuccessful in its attempts to secure 2021 – 24 rights to the competition in the tender for the upcoming cycle, which was won by BT for £1.2 billion, the same as the current 2018-21 deal.
ITV is now said to have made an offer to broadcast select live Champions League matches, as well as the free-to-air rights to the final (which BT Sport currently puts for free on YouTube, due to its ‘protected event’ status).
If a deal is successful, it would mean football fans could watch Champions League football on terrestrial TV for the first time since 2015, when ITV last shared the rights with Sky Sports.
Neither broadcaster has yet to offer comment on the speculation.