TheUEFA Champions League (also known as theEuropean Cup) is an annual clubfootball competition organized by theUnion of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested bytop-division European clubs, deciding the competition winners. The competition attracts an extensive television audience, not just in Europe, but throughout the world. The final of the tournament has been, in recent years, the most-watched annual sporting event in the world.[1] Thefinal of the 2012–13 tournament had the competition's highest TV ratings to date, drawing approximately 360 million television viewers.[2]
ESPN formerly had the rights of theUEFA Champions League between 1995–2009.Derek Rae andTommy Smyth formed the lead broadcast team with theESPN2 alternate team beingAdrian Healey andRobbie Mustoe. The pre-match program was hosted byAndrew Orsatti.
Fox formerly aired theUEFA Champions League and theUEFA Europa League from 2009–2018.[3] Fox Sports provided live coverage through May 2015. Fox Sports Media Group had the first, second, and third picks of live matches for each night of the competition. Different live matches would air onFox Soccer,Fox Soccer Plus,Fox Deportes and regionalFox Sports Net affiliates, with rebroadcasts on Fox Soccer.DirecTV broadcasts all remaining matches during the playoff round and the group stage. Fox Soccer airs semifinal matches on Tuesdays andFX did the same on Wednesdays.[4][5][6] The final is aired live free-to-air onFox.[7][8][9]
Rob Stone hosted UEFA Champions League coverage alongside a rotation of analysts includingWarren Barton,Brad Friedel,Eric Wynalda,Stuart Holden, andAlexi Lalas. Lead broadcast team for non World-Feed broadcasts of UEFA Champions League from 2013–2014 wasGus Johnson andEric Wynalda, untilJohn Strong andStuart Holden orBrad Friedel replaced them as lead commentator for the rest of the contract.Ian Joy orKate Abdo hosted UEFA Europa League coverage alongside analystsStuart Holden,Warren Barton, andMario Melchiot. The lead broadcast team for Europa League coverage wasKeith Costigan andAlexi Lalas. For World-Feed broadcasts, Tony Jones andDavid Pleat called bothUEFA Champions League Final andUEFA Europa League Final.
In 2017, Turner Sports announced that they had retained the rights to air all of the matches from theUEFA Champions League live. The contract originally runs from 2018–2021. Turner later announced that they would air 4 matches per week onTNT and the remainder of the matches on new streaming serviceB/R Live.[10] All matches would be commentated through world feed.
In January 2016, Univision and TUDN, formerly known as Univision Deportes acquired Spanish-language rights to UEFA tournaments beginning in 2018, includingUEFA Euro 2020,UEFA Euro 2024 and theUEFA Nations League.[11] In 2017, Univision acquired Spanish-language rights to theUEFA Champions League andEuropa League beginning in 2018-19.[12] All UEFA competition’s matches regularly air acrossUnivision,UniMás,Galavisión, andTUDN.
Originally theUEFA Champions League,[13]UEFA Europa League, andUEFA Super Cup would've aired on CBS Sports networks starting from the 2021–22 seasons, butTurner Sports opted out of the rest of its contract after airing most matches in the round of 16 for the 2019–20 season. In response, CBS extended its contract to start one and half (one forUEFA Super Cup) seasons earlier beginning with the remaining round of 16 matches and the quarter finals in 2019–20 season.[14][15][16][17] On August 19, 2022, Amazon is outbid from rights holders, UEFA extended the deal with CBS until 2030.[18]
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