Subscription streaming service DAZN has signed off on its acquisition of Uefa Champions League rights in Germany for the new three-season cycle, from 2021-22 to 2023-24.
The deal, which DAZN announced this morning (Tuesday), allows the OTT streaming broadcaster to show 121 of 138 Champions League matches exclusively live each season.
During the sales process conduced by the Team Marketing agency at the end of last year, DAZN acquired two packages of Champions League rights, the first-pick match on Wednesday evenings and the remaining live matches, aside from the first-pick Tuesday evening match that was acquired by online retail giant Amazon.
Both DAZN and public-service broadcaster ZDF will hold live rights to the Champions League final.
DAZN will also be the home of a ‘Konferenz’ format that will show live action from the bulk of the Champions League matches. Highlights from each match have also been secured.
The confirmation of the rights deal follows on from DAZN’s recent acquisition of rights to 106 Bundesliga matches per season from 2021-22 to 2024-25.
DAZN’s acquisition of the Champions League rights was reported by SportBusiness in December, followed by an analysis of the deals by SportBusiness Media as Team and Uefa secured a substantial increase from the German market.
Pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland, one of Uefa’s incumbent partners, missed out on live Champions League rights during the new cycle. The rights in the current cycle to Europe’s elite clubs competition (from 2018-19 to 2020-21) are held by Sky and DAZN. Sky initially acquired rights from Uefa directly, but subsequently sublicensed a significant portion of its Champions League rights to DAZN.
John Gleasure, chief business development officer at DAZN, said today (Tuesday): “Extending our coverage of the Uefa Champions League until 2024, alongside our extensive Bundesliga rights acquisition means DAZN will become the number one destination for football fans in Germany. At the peak, we’ll show exclusive live coverage in Germany at eight out of the 10 kick-off times a week across the two leading club competitions, giving fans affordable access to the most prestigious and exciting football competitions around.”
Team launched the sales process in Germany on October 30, with a bid deadline of December 3. The agency sold the rights to the Europa League and Europa Conference League together, while the rights to the Champions League continue to be packaged with the Uefa Super Cup and also the Uefa Youth League.