List of UEFA Champions League broadcasters

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This is a list of television broadcasters which provide coverage of the UEFA Champions League, European football's top level continental competition.

The competition attracts a huge television audience, not just in Europe, but throughout the world. The 2006 Final, FC Barcelona versus Arsenal, attracted the 4th biggest global TV audience for a sports event in that year, averaging 86 million viewers (the total audience, 209 million, was actually the 3rd highest of 2006, only behind the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final (603 million) and the Opening Ceremony of the 2006 Olympic Games (249 million).^[1]

[edit] Format of Rights Packages

Rights to show the UEFA Champions League are awarded directly by UEFA to broadcasters on a territory-by-territory (country-by-country) basis, and in all territories a pay television broadcaster holds the majority, if not all, the rights. In territories which are members of the European Union, at least one match every Matchday (a Matchday being comprised of both the Tuesday and Wednesday night) must be broadcast on a free tv channel. Typically in EU territories, the free TV broadcaster (which normally is a channel that allows commercial advertisements, so as to meet UEFA's obligations to tournament sponsors) will be awarded the right to the ‘1st pick’ of matches either over the entire Matchday or for a single night. This means that the free TV broadcaster is given priority over the pay TV broadcaster in determining which match they will be broadcasting, so in effect the free TV broadcaster will be able to pick the match which it perceives to be most attractive to their audience. Both the free and pay channels carry the final.

In territories where teams from the territory are regularly in the competition, it is always the case that free TV broadcasters will pick matches involving teams from their own territory given that this will be of far greater interest to the audience in that territory. For example, TF1 in France will pick matches involving French teams if they are still in the competition.

Also, although pay TV broadcasters always hold the rights to broadcast the majority (if not all) of the matches, it does not mean they will broadcast them all. This is especially the case during the group stage where 8 matches are played on any one night (all matches kick-off at 20.45 CET, with the exception of matches held in Russia). This is due to limitations in a broadcaster’s capacity to be able to broadcast matches, so for example, Sky Sports in the United Kingdom will always broadcast every match for which they have the rights to do so – utilising its ownership of the Sky Digital satellite television service on which it broadcasts, whilst Sport TV in Portugal will broadcast a selection of the matches it has the rights to, but not all, as it has limited broadcasting capacity on the TV Cabo satellite and cable television service.

Some broadcasters, notably including SportTV and Sky Sports, offer matches in HDTV.

RTP renewed the rights for Portugal until 2012.

On 1 July 2009 Kanal A became Slovenia's new broadcaster. Its owner Pro Plus bought televison, internet and mobile rights for three seasons.

[edit] International broadcasters

Country/Region	Language	Free/Pay TV	Broadcaster	Tuesday Night Live Matches	Wednesday Night Live Matches	Tuesday Night Highlights	Wednesday Night Highlights	Weekly magazine show
English-speaking Africa	English	Pay	Super Sport (South Africa)	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
Portuguese Speaking Africa	Portuguese	Pay	SportTV África	Portuguese Teams and more two other matches from other teams from another countries.	Portuguese Teams and more two other matches from other teams from another countries.	No	Yes	Yes
Albania	Albanian	Free	TV Klan					Yes
		Pay	Digit Alb	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
Algeria	Arabic	Free	ENTV
Argentina	Spanish	Free	Canal 7	1st pick on either Tuesday or Wednesday night		Yes	Yes	Yes
		Pay	Fox Sports Latin America	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
Armenia	Armenian	Free	ARM 1	1 match	1 match	Yes	Yes	Yes
		Free	New Wave Channel	1 match (sometimes 2 matches)	1 match (sometimes 2 matches)
Australia New Zealand	English	Free	SBS (Australia only)	2 matches when NSW and Victoria are operating on AEST, 1 match when NSW and Victoria are operating on AEDT (Daylight savings)	2 matches when NSW and Victoria are operating on AEST, 1 match when NSW and Victoria are operating on AEDT (Daylight savings)	Yes	Yes	Yes
		Pay	ESPN Australia	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Austria	German	Free	ORF	1st pick on either Tuesday or Wednesday night		Yes	Yes	Yes
		Pay	Premiere Sport	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
Azerbaijan	Azerbaijani	Free	ANS	1 match	1 match	Yes	Yes	Yes
Belarus	Russian	Free	National State Teleradiocompany	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
Belgium	French	Free	Club RTL	1st pick	1st pick	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Flemish		2BE	1st pick	1st pick	Yes	Yes	Yes
		Pay	Prime	2 matches excluding match shown by 2BE	2 matches excluding match shown by 2BE	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bosnia-Herzegovina	Bosnian	Free	BHT	1 match	1 match	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bolivia	Spanish	Free	ATB	1st pick	1st pick	Yes	Yes	Yes
Brazil	Portuguese	Free	Rede Record Record News	1 match	1 match			Yes
		Pay	ESPN Brasil	All matches	All matches			Yes
			ESPN Latin America	All matches	All matches			Yes
Bulgaria	Bulgarian	Free	PRO.BG	1 match (1st pick)	1 match (1st pick)
			Diema	1 match (Live) + 1 match (Record)	1 match (Live) + 1 match (Record)	Yes	Yes
			Diema 2	1 match (Live) + 1 match (Record)	1 match (Live) + 1 match (Record)
Canada1	English/French	Pay	TSN and RDS	1st pick	1st pick	No	No	Yes
Chile	Spanish	Free	Chilevisión	No matches	1st pick	Yes	Yes	Yes
		Pay	Fox Sports Latin America	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
China	Chinese (Mandarin)	Free	CCTV	At least 1 match	At least 1 match	Yes	Yes	Yes
		Free	CCTV.com	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
	English	Pay	ESPN Star Sports	At least 1 match	At least 1 match	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hong Kong	Chinese (Cantonese) & English	Pay	Cable TV Hong Kong	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA
Taiwan Philippines Singapore Malaysia	Chinese (Mandarin) & English	Pay	ESPN Star Sports	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
DR Congo	French	Free	RTCN 2	1st pick	3rd pick
FYR Macedonia	Macedonian	Free	Makedonska televizija MTV	1st pick	1st pick	Yes	Yes	Yes
Croatia	Croatian	Free	Hrvatska televizija	No	All matches	No	Yes	Yes
		Free	Nova TV	1st pick	No	Yes	No	Yes
Cyprus³	Greek	Free	Sigma TV
Czech Republic	Czech	Free	Česká televize	No	1st pick	Yes	Yes	Yes
		Pay	Nova Sport	1st pick	2nd pick	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ecuador	Spanish	Free	Teleamazonas	No Matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	No
Finland	Finnish & Swedish	Free	YLE	1st pick on either Tuesday or Wednesday night		Yes	Yes	No
		Pay	Viasat	All matches	All matches	No	No	Yes
France Monaco	French	Free	TF1	1st pick on either Tuesday or Wednesday night		No	No	No
		Pay	Canal+	All matches excluding match shown by TF1	All matches excluding match shown by TF1	Yes	Yes	Yes
Georgia	Georgian	Free	Rustavi 2
Germany	German	Free	Sat.1	No	1st pick	No	No	No
		Pay	Premiere Sport	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
Greece	Greek	Free	Mega Channel	1 match	No Matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
		Free	ERT	No matches	1 Match	Yes	Yes	Yes
		Pay	Nova Sports	All matches excluding match shown by Mega Channel	All matches excluding match shown by ERT	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hungary	Hungarian	Free	MTV	1st pick on either Tuesday or Wednesday night		No	No	Yes
		Pay	TV6	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
India Pakistan Sri Lanka Bangladesh Maldives Nepal	English	Pay	TEN Sports & Zee Sports	2 matches	2 matches			Yes
Indonesia	Indonesian	Free	RCTI	1 match	1 match	Yes	Yes	No
Iceland	Icelandic	Pay (broadcasted on 2 channels)	Stöð 2 Sport	2 matches (Usually English club)	2 matches zbr> (Usually English club)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Iran	Persian	Free	IRIB 3	1 match (sometimes 2 matches)	1 match (sometimes 2 matches)			Yes
Ireland2	English	Free	RTÉ	1st pick	1st Pick	Yes	Yes	Yes
		Pay	Setanta Ireland	2nd Pick excluding match shown by RTÉ	2nd Pick excluding match shown by RTÉ	Yes	Yes	Yes
Israel	Hebrew	Free	Sport 5	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
		Pay	Sport 5+ Sport 5+ Live Sport 5+ Gold Sport 5+ HD
			Sport 1 Sport 2	2 matches	2 matches	No	No	No
Italy	Italian	Free	RAI	No matches	1st pick	Yes	Yes	Yes
		Pay	SKY Sport	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
		Pay	Mediaset Premium	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
Kazakhstan	Russian/Kazakh	Free	Channel 31	All matches	All matches
Kosovo	Albanian	Free	RTK	2 matches	2 matches	Yes
Japan	Japanese	Pay	SKY PerfecTV!					Yes
Mali	French	Free	ORT
Mexico	Spanish & English	Pay	Fox Sports Latin America	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Spanish	Free	Televisa	1st pick excluding matches shown by TV Azteca	1st pick excluding matches shown by TV Azteca	Yes	Yes	No
		Free	TV Azteca	1st pick excluding matches shown by Televisa	1st pick excluding matches shown by Televisa	Yes	Yes	No
Middle East, North Africa &East Africa Yemen Palestine Egypt Iraq Syria KSA Jordan Lebanon UAE Oman Iran Bahrain Qatar Kuwait Algeria Morocco Tunisia Libya Mauritania Western Sahara Chad Senegal Somalia Ethiopia Djibouti Eritrea Sudan	Arabic/English/Persian	Pay	Al Jazeera Sports	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
Morocco	Arabic and French	Free	2M	1st pick	1st pick	No	No	Yes
		Free	Arryadia	1st pick	1st pick	Yes	Yes	No
Moldova	Romanian	Free	Moldova 1	1st pick	1st pick	Yes	Yes	Yes
Netherlands	Dutch	Free	NOS	1st pick	1st pick	No	Yes	Yes
		Pay	Sport1	All matches including matches shown by NOS	All matches including matches shown by NOS	Yes	Yes	Yes
Peru	Spanish & English	Pay	ESPN Latin America	Some QR matches, most GS matches and all knockout stage matches		Yes	Yes	Yes
Portugal	Portuguese	Free	RTP	1 game if Portuguese team is in and plays that fixture on Tuesday: 1 eliminatory game	1 game if Portuguese team is in and plays that fixture on Wednesday: 1 eliminatory game	Yes	Yes	Yes
		Pay	SportTV	2 games in group stage and all games in knockout stage	2 games in group stage and all games in knockout stage	No	Yes	Yes
Poland	Polish	Free	Polsat	No	1st pick	Yes	Yes	Yes
		Pay	nSport	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
Romania	Romanian	Free	PRO TV and www.protv.ro	1 match	1 match	Yes	Yes	Yes
		Free	www.sport.ro	3 matches	3 matches
Russia	Russian	Free	VGTRK	1st pick	2nd pick	Yes	Yes	Yes
		Pay	NTV Plus		1st pick
Denmark Estonia Latvia Lithuania Norway	Language of country	Pay	National variations of TV3
Serbia	Serbian	Free	B92	1 match	1 match	Yes	Yes	Yes
Slovakia	Slovak	Free	Slovenská televízia	1 match	2 matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
Slovenia	Slovenian	Free	Kanal A	not known yet	not known yet	Yes	Yes	Yes
South Africa	English	Free	e.tv
		Pay	Super Sport (South Africa)	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
South Korea	Korean	Pay	MBC ESPN	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
Spain	Spanish	Free	TVE and FORTA	1st pick on TVE	1st pick on FORTA	Yes, on FORTA	Yes, on TVE and FORTA	No
		Pay	Gol Televisión	All matches excluding match shown by TVE	All matches excluding match shown by FORTA	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sweden	Swedish	Both4	Viasat	All matches, 1st pick on TV6	All matches, 1st pick on Viasat Fotboll	Yes	Yes	Yes
Switzerland	French, German, Italian	Free	SRG SSR	At least 1st pick on either Tuesday or Wednesday night		Yes	Yes	Yes
		Pay	Teleclub	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes
Thailand	Thai	Pay	ESPN Star Sports (via True Visions)	All Matches	All Matches	YES	YES	YES
		Free	Channel 3 & Channel 7	All Matches	All Matches	YES	YES	YES (Channel 3)
Turkey	Turkish	Free	Star TV	1st pick	1st pick	Yes	Yes	Yes
		Pay	D-Smart	All matches excluding matches shown by Star TV	All matches excluding matches shown by Star TV	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ukraine	Ukrainian	Free	TRK Ukraina TET
		Pay	Poverkhnost TV
United Kingdom2	English	Free	ITV	1st and 2nd pick	No matches	Yes	No[citation needed] STV only, see below	Yes
			STV	As ITV, unless a Scottish club plays	No matches[citation needed]	Yes	Only if Scottish club is involved	Yes
		Pay	Sky Sports	All matches excluding matches shown by ITV but including STV match (if applicable)	All matches	Yes (excluding ITV matches, including STV matches)	Yes	Yes
United States5 Puerto Rico	English & Spanish	Pay	Fox Soccer Channel, FX (Final) Fox Sports en Español7, and Setanta Sports North America	All matches	All matches	No	No	Yes
Venezuela	Spanish	Free	Meridiano Television	1st pick on either Tuesday or Wednesday night		No	No	Yes
		Pay	Fox Sports Latin America	All matches	All matches	Yes	Yes	Yes

¹TSN and RDS do not always carry the same matches. Regardless, they simulcast games televised by FSC in the United States. As FSC holds the distribution rights in Canada, other broadcasters may acquire second-choice or lower games.

²As Ireland shares the Sky Digital satellite television service with the United Kingdom, Irish viewers across the island also have access to UK and Irish broadcasters including ITV, Sky Sports, RTÉ and Setanta Ireland.

²Premiere acquired all rights for the German market on the condition that they broadcast one 1st pick match each Matchday on Free TV. Premiere later took over DSF for this purpose.

³Like the Republic of Ireland, Cyprus shares the NOVA satellite television service with Greece, and so Cypriot viewers also have access to Greek broadcasters showing UCL coverage.

⁴TV6 is free through terrestrial television.

⁵FSC has the first, third, and sometimes fourth-choice of game in the United States. FSC usually carries the primary game for English-speakers live, while Fox Sports en Español carries one live for Spanish-speakers. Setanta has the second-pick and is permitted to compete with FSC's game. Both Setanta and FSC broadcast other games on tape delay. FX carries the final match.^[2]

⁶Record News did not show the same Wednesdays matches of Rede Record .And did not show this matches live. Show UEFA Champions League Weekly Magazine as Rede Record.

[edit] References

v • d • e European Cup and UEFA Champions League European Cup era, 1955–1992 Seasons 1955–1956 · 1956–1957 · 1957–1958 · 1958–1959 · 1959–1960 · 1960–1961 · 1961–1962 · 1962–1963 · 1963–1964 · 1964–1965 · 1965–1966 · 1966–1967 · 1967–1968 · 1968–1969 · 1969–1970 · 1970–1971 · 1971–1972 · 1972–1973 · 1973–1974 · 1974–1975 · 1975–1976 · 1976–1977 · 1977–1978 · 1978–1979 · 1979–1980 · 1980–1981 · 1981–1982 · 1982–1983 · 1983–1984 · 1984–1985 · 1985–1986 · 1986–1987 · 1987–1988 · 1988–1989 · 1989–1990 · 1990–1991 · 1991–1992 Finals 1956 · 1957 · 1958 · 1959 · 1960 · 1961 · 1962 · 1963 · 1964 · 1965 · 1966 · 1967 · 1968 · 1969 · 1970 · 1971 · 1972 · 1973 · 1974 · 1975 · 1976 · 1977 · 1978 · 1979 · 1980 · 1981 · 1982 · 1983 · 1984 · 1985 · 1986 · 1987 · 1988 · 1989 · 1990 · 1991 · 1992 Champions League era, 1992–present Seasons 1992–1993 · 1993–1994 · 1994–1995 · 1995–1996 · 1996–1997 · 1997–1998 · 1998–1999 · 1999–2000 · 2000–2001 · 2001–2002 · 2002–2003 · 2003–2004 · 2004–2005 · 2005–2006 · 2006–2007 · 2007–2008 · 2008–2009 · 2009–2010 · 2010–2011 Finals 1993 · 1994 · 1995 · 1996 · 1997 · 1998 · 1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008 · 2009 · 2010 · 2011 · 2012 Anthem · Broadcasters · History · Records and statistics · Trophy · Winning managers · Winning players · Winning teams