This comes from Jonathan Tannenwald from Philly.com and his excellent “The Goalkeeper” blog. He reports that NBC is planning to join the bidding for the UEFA Champions League. Fox is the current rightsholder first gaining the rights in 2009 and signing a new contract in 2010 that covers the current period from 2012-13 through 2014-15. The deal would run from 2015-16 through the 2017-18 seasons.
As it’s been making an investment into its cable sports network, NBC has obtained rights to the English Premier League and Major League Soccer. The network’s rights to MLS expire next year and the EPL in 2015-16. NBC wants to keep both and will fight hard to do so. If it’s able to get the rights to the Champions League, it would be a big feather in Peacock’s cap.
World Soccer Talk reports that UEFA will split off the Champions League and Europa League rights into separate packages and from there, split both into English and Spanish language rights. Not only would beIN Sport, ESPN, Fox and NBC would go for English rights, but UEFA would also get beIN Sport, ESPN Deportes, Fox Deportes, Telemundo and Univision bidding against each other for Spanish rights. It’s a way for UEFA to get more money from the US networks.
Currently, Fox owns all of the Champions and Europa League rights and airs the games on Fox Sports 1 and 2, Fox Sports Net, Fox Soccer Plus and Fox Deportes. It airs the Champions League Final on Fox.
If NBC is able to wrest the Champions League, that would leave just the FIFA World Cup and the Bundesliga on Fox. Of course, ESPN would love to gain the Champions League back which it aired between 1994 and 2009. And the dark horse is beIN Sports which has a lot of money.
Bids are due to UEFA on December 3. A decision is expected on US rights later this month. We’ll discover if we have a new rightsholder or rightsholders for UEFA.
