French pay-television broadcaster SFR Sport has secured exclusive rights to the Uefa Champions League and Europa League club football competitions from the 2018-19 season, ousting rival operators beIN Sports and Canal Plus as the rights-holder.
Both French newspaper L’Équipe and the Reuters news agency said SFR Sport will pay €350m ($381.85m) per season for the rights, which will run across the 2018-19 to 2020-21 seasons of the two showpiece club competitions of European football’s governing body.
SFR Sport confirmed the news in a brief statement on its website, while beIN Sports has lamented the decision by Uefa.
A statement read: “beIN Sports has been informed of Uefa’s decision to award the exclusive rights of the Uefa Champions League and the Uefa Europa League to another operator from the summer 2018. beIN is disappointed and surprised by this decision from Uefa and has concerns about this process.”
Champions League rights in the current cycle, from 2015-16 to 2017-18, are currently split between beIN and Canal Plus.
Europa League rights are split between beIN and commercial broadcaster W9 over the same three seasons.