BT Sport has been awarded the exclusive broadcast rights to UEFA’s European club competitions until 2024, it was announced on Friday.
As part of the deal – which has cost £400million per year and commences in 2021 – BT have secured the rights to all 420 games from the Champions League, Europa League and the new Europa Conference League for a further three seasons.
BT Sport will see an increase of 77 games from the previous deal, which includes highlights and in-match clips.
HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT!! 📣— BT Sport (@btsport) November 15, 2019
Last season, both the Champions League and Europa League finals were contested by Premier League teams.
BT Sport reported a 26 per cent increase in Champions League viewer hours, with the final between Liverpool and Tottenham made available for everyone to watch in the UK via social media.
A record 11.3 million people tuned in across all platforms to watch the Reds go on and lift the European Cup for a sixth time in Madrid.
Chief executive of BT’s Consumer Division Marc Allera said: “We’re delighted to remain the home of UEFA Champions League in the UK.
“BT Sport leads the way when it comes to UEFA Champions League coverage, and we are very excited to continue to bring our world class coverage to one of the most exciting football competitions in the world – whether that is broadcasting 12 games simultaneously or delivering industry leading images in 4K UHD.
“With increasingly more ways to watch our content, with more games on show than ever before, and alongside our excellent line up of other competitions and sports, BT Sport is going from strength to strength.”
Shares in BT had dropped nearly four per cent after the Labour Party announced plans to turn broadband into a public service. Jeremy Corbyn is due to officially announce the new policy in a speech in Lancaster on Friday morning.
Labour has costed the policy at £20billion, saying it will deliver free full-fibre internet to every home and business by 2030 if it wins the General Election.
But BT chief executive Philip Jansen said the Labour Party had dramatically under-estimated the price of its pledge, saying it would cost closer to £100b.
The BT share price later stabilised to just a two per cent fall – nevertheless wiping nearly £500m off the company’s value.
