UK pay-television broadcaster BT Sport is considering live streaming the final of the 2015-16 Uefa Champions League football tournament on video-sharing platform YouTube, according to the Daily Mail newspaper.
BT Sport currently holds exclusive live rights in the UK to the Champions League after agreeing a three-season deal across the 2015-16 to 2017-18 campaigns worth £897m (€1.1bn/$1.3bn). The broadcaster has come in for criticism due to low viewing figures and it is hoped streaming the final via YouTube, along with on the free-to-air BT Showcase channel, will boost audiences.
“We said at the launch that we wanted to make the Uefa Champions League final available for everybody to watch, so any decision on where it is broadcast live in the UK will be made by BT,” a BT statement read.
Manchester City is the only English Premier League club in a Champions League semi-final line-up that also includes German Bundesliga outfit Bayern Munich and Spanish Liga rivals Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid.