BT Sport have confirmed that they have retained the exclusive rights to show Champions League and Europa League football until 2021.
The broadcast giants will splash out £394m per year until the end of the 2020/21 season, which is an increase from their current £299m-a-season deal.
It’s added that they will have exclusivity across all live games, highlights and in-match clips of both competitions, as per ESPN FC, and they’ll have the means to show back-to-back matches during the group stage with differing kick off times for certain games.
Further, they will make clips, weekly highlights and magazine shows free to watch on social media, along with the finals of both the Champions League and Europa League.
“We are delighted to have renewed these rights,” John Petter, consumer CEO at BT said. “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.”
It remains to whether or not that results in a hike in prices for subscribers, but ultimately since the switch from Sky Sports, BT have by and large received positive reviews of their coverage and panels which in turn sets things up well moving forward.
With more set to be shared on social media free of charge too, it looks like an appealing package for the consumer, but time will tell if they continue to offer value for money and in the years ahead if Sky decide to dip their toes back into European waters and make move to reclaim the rights.