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Sky Italia closes ranks on the television rights of Champions, Europe and Conference League. The three continental competitions will not be shared with other broadcasters. And what’s more, the Italians’ matches will only be broadcast on the Sky platform or on Now. None of the matches involving the Peninsula teams in the new Champions League will therefore be free-to-air, not even on TV8, the “flagship” network of the home media company Comcast.
No agreements with other groups
As far as is known Sun 24 Hoursthe decision would be made. No sublicensing or agreements with other broadcasters on European footballtherefore, for a Sky which evidently intends to play all its cards to the full in favor of its subscribers and to increase its revenues.
All by locking down the rights it has acquired for 2024-27 exclusively. This latter thing was impossible for the three-year period that has just ended and which, at the time of the assignment, had been conditioned by the decision of the Italian Antitrust which had imposed on Sky a three-year preventative block in the acquisition of exclusives for the web, following the purchase, which in fact never even happened, of the R2 technological platform used by the then Mediaset Premium for its broadcasts.
Without this ban, Sky has decidedly focused on European cups. Official figures have never been given, but the rumors circulating in 2023, the year of assignment, indicated an outlay of around 660 million euros for the television rights of the Champions League (185 matches out of 203 per season), Europa League and Conference League for the next three-year cycle from 2024 to 2027.
The new Champions League formula
An important commitment, but also consequent to the fact that the new Champions League formula will start from the 2024-2025 season: it will be played 11 months out of 12 and the matches will be 47% more in total than in previous editions, with the number of participating teams to the final phase which goes from 32 to 36, all in a single group. Eight Italians in Europe: five in the Champions League (Inter; Milan; Juventus; Atalanta and Bologna); two in the Europa League (Roma and Lazio) and one in the Conference (Fiorentina).
