MUNICH, GERMANY – MAY 28: The Champions League trophy is seen ahead of the UEFA Champions League Final 2025 between Paris Saint-Germain and FC Internazionale Milano at the Munich Football Arena on May 28, 2025 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Michael Regan – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
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The broadcasting landscape of European football could be dramatically altered by the arrival on the scene of streaming giants like Netflix and Disney.
European clubs indicated they plan to raise at least €5bn (£4.3bn, $5.7bn) per year from the sale of the next cycle of TV rights to the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League.
It is a potentially landmark moment for the sport and fore UC3, the newly-formed joint venture between UEFA, European football’s governing body, and European Football Clubs.
The latter represents the interest European clubs and was known as the European Club Association until it rebranded at its general assembly in Rome earlier this week.
On Wednesday, UC3 announced the tender process for the TV rights of the UEFA competitions between 2027 and 2033 will begin later this month for its five major market – France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.
It is the first rights sale under the watch of American agency Relevent, which replaced UEFA’s long-term global sales partner TEAM Marketing in 2024, ending the latter’s 34-year partnership with UEFA.
By putting the rights for Europe’s five major markets for sale up at once, UC3 is hoping to entice Disney, Netflix, Apple TV, DAZN, YouTube or Amazon to snap up the right to at least one game in each matchweek to be streamed globally by the same broadcaster.
Were a deal to be struck with a streaming service, it is still unclear whether the arrangement would be in place just for the league phase or whether it would continue into the knockout stages.
Currently, broadcasters for UEFA competitions vary in each country. The Champions League is broadcast on TNT Sports in the UK, while Sky Sports and DAZN hold the rights in Italy and Germany respectively.
Movistar Plus+ holds exclusively rights in Spain and Canal+ and M6 share them in France.
Amazon also holds broadcasting rights in the UK, Germany and Italy, streaming one game per week in each country.
UEFA targets TV righths increase
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS – MARCH 03: UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin speaks at the 44th UEFA Congress at Beur van Berlage on March 03, 2020 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Photo by Lukas Schulze – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
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TV rights for UEFA competitions are worth £2.9bn ($3.9bn) in the current rights cycle, which runs from 2024 to 2027.
Clubs competing in the Champions League receive approximately 75 percent of the amount, with 17 percent going to Europa League clubs and 8 percent to sides in the Conference League.
“Together we are building something unique with ambition, to deliver the most engaging football, the most innovative and the most accessible, to expand our core revenue streams,” UEFA president Alexander Ceferin said on Wednesday.
“To inspire new fans to follow our competitions, to drive engagement with new audiences, especially in an ever‑changing media and streaming rights landscape, and to make the most of digital platforms and bring the game closer together forever.
“This is how we will keep European football at the very top.”
UC3 co-managing director Guy-Laurent Epstein, added: “This new strategy reflects our ambition to lead the next phase of growth for UEFA men’s club competitions.
“By bringing a fresh approach to key markets and introducing innovative new packages, we are setting a new benchmark for how football is brought to fans around the world.”
Netflix paid $150 million to broadcast two NFL games on Christmas Day, setting a new record for a NFL game on a streaming platform.
An average of 24.3 million viewers in the US watched the Baltimore Ravens beat the Houston Texans, while 24.1 million tuned in to watch the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Pittsburgh Steelers.
It has also snapped up exclusive broadcast rights in the United States for the 2027 and 2031 editions of the Women’s World Cup.
Amazon, meanwhile, first broadcast 10 NFL games on its Prime Video platform in 2017 and has held exclusive broadcasting rights to Thursday Night Football since 2023 in a 10-year deal worth in the region of $1bn.
Apple TV+ signed a seven-year deal to broadcast MLB games in 2022, the same year in which it began broadcasting MLS games in the U.S., while YouTube exclusively streamed a NFL Week 1 game earlier this season.
Disney made its first foray into the world of live sport earlier this season by snapping up the global rights to the Women’s Champions League through the 2029-30 season, while DAZN secured worldwide rights for the Club World Cup in June by pouring $1bn into FIFA’s coffers and broadcasts Germany’s Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A outside their domestic markets in Europe.
How Relevent is changing European football
BARCELONA, SPAIN – MAY 18: Lamine Yamal of FC Barcelona competes for the ball with Yeremy Pino of Villarreal CF during the LaLiga match between FC Barcelona and Villarreal CF at Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys on May 18, 2025 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Pablo Rodriguez/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
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Relevent has emerged as a major player in European football, brokering a $1.5billion deal for the Champions League rights in the U.S. with Paramount back in 2022.
It has also played a significant role in LaLiga agreeing to stage a game between Barcelona and Villarreal in Miami in December, a first for any European league.
Back in 2018, FIFA blocked Relevent’s attempt to stage a fixture between Barcelona and Girona in Miami, leading to the US company filing a lawsuit against world football’s governing body’s ban on staging league games overseas.
The two parties reached a settlement last year, which resulted in the dismissal of Relevent’s lawsuit.
Despite the prolonged legal battle, FIFA has made no substantive moves to close regulatory loopholes and a working group established in 2024 to examine the rules has yet to announce any conclusions.
As a result, UEFA announced on Tuesday it had “reluctantly agreed” to allow LaLiga and Serie A to stage a game abroad for the first time this season.
Barcelona and Villarreal will square off in Miami in December, while AC Milan are set to take on Como in Perth, Australia, in February.
“UEFA reiterated its clear opposition to domestic league matches being played outside their home country,” European football’s governing body said in a statement.
“Given that the relevant FIFA regulatory framework – currently under review – is not clear and detailed enough, the UEFA executive committee has reluctantly taken the decision to approve, on an exceptional basis, the two requests referred to it.”