UK pay-television broadcaster BT Sport has again elected to provide free coverage of this year’s Uefa Champions League and Europa League club football competitions on video-sharing website YouTube, while fans will also be able to experience the games in 4K ultra-high-definition and virtual reality.
This year’s Europa League final pits Dutch Eredivisie club Ajax against English Premier League side Manchester United in Stockholm on May 24, while the Champions League final will take place on June 3 in Cardiff between Italian Serie A team Juventus and Spanish LaLiga outfit Real Madrid.
Both games will be made available for free on YouTube, as well as on the BT website, BT Sport channels and the BT Sport mobile application.
The YouTube stream will be available for the first time in 4K UHD. Television coverage will also be available in 4K UHD with Dolby Atmos sound on BT TV.
In addition, the Champions League final will be viewable through 360-degree streams on YouTube and via the new BT Sport virtual reality app. The service will allow viewers to choose between a 360-degree-produced programme with commentary and graphics, or select their own camera point.
John Petter, chief executive of BT Consumer, said: “These are two of the biggest club football tournaments in the world and showing them live on social media and on mobile devices makes it more readily available to a younger audience as well as available to traditional TV viewers.”
BT Sport is the exclusive home of the Champions League and Europa League in the UK and in March signed a new three-season deal to retain rights to the competitions across the 2018-19 to 2020-21 campaigns. The deal is worth around £394m (€459m/$511m) per year, or £1.182bn in total.