Univision’s TUDN turns to classic Champions League finals

TUDN, the Univision-owned US Spanish-language network, is showing archive Uefa Champions League finals as broadcasters worldwide continue to look for content amid the sports shutdown sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The finals are being shown this week in condensed 60-minute formats with Spanish language commentary.

TUDN’s output began yesterday (Monday) with the 2015 final between Juventus and Barcelona and continues today with the 2012 final between Bayern Munich and Chelsea. The programming will begin each day at midday (ET).

This week’s selection will also feature the finals from 2003 (Juventus v AC Milan), 2007 (AC Milan v Liverpool) and 2010 (Bayern Munich v Inter Milan).

Uefa last month responded to the postponement of its competitions by making a wealth of its archive content available on its free-to-view OTT platform, Uefa.tv, including full re-runs of classic matches.

Univision last year secured the Champions League, Uefa Europa League and Europa Conference League rights from 2021-22 to 2023-24. Univision and fellow US rights-holder CBS will pay a total of $150m (€137m) per season for the English-language and Spanish-language rights, respectively in the next three-season cycle.

Last season’s Champions League final averaged 1.4 million viewers on Univision and TUDN (then UDN), despite the absence of a Spanish club in the final (which was contested by Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur). The Spanish-language broadcaster has set audience records since acquiring the Uefa club rights from 2018-19 onwards.

A consortium headed up by private equity firms Searchlight Capital Partners and ForgeLight LLC recently acquired a controlling stake in Univision, paying an estimated $526m.