For the first time in the competition’s history, the Champions League Final will not be available for free to viewers due to a decision taken by TNT Sports.
For the first time in UEFA Champions League history, the final will not be available to watch free-to-air.
UK rights holder TNT Sports will not be providing a free-to-air option for the Champions League final between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain on 30 May having previously live streamed its broadcast on its YouTube channel since acquiring the rights in 2015.
The UEFA Europa League Final between Aston Villa and SC Freiburg on 20 May, as well as the Conference League Final between Crystal Palace and Rayo Vallecano on 27 May, will also not be broadcast free-to-air.
This has reportedly angered officials at UEFA, with the final set to charge fans of Arsenal, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace to watch a potential all-English clean sweep of European trophies.
A monthly subscription for TNT Sports in the UK costs £30.99.
While there is no legal obligation in TNT Sports and UEFA’s broadcast rights contract to show the finals free-to-air, there is a provision in the contract that says the broadcaster should pursue “best endeavours” to broadcast the final free-to-air.
Since acquiring the rights for the Champions League and Europa League for the 2015/16 season, and later the Conference League in 2021/22, TNT Sports has shown UEFA club competitions free-to-air.
As well as airing the finals on its YouTube channels, TNT Sports has also live streamed the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League on Discovery+. The streaming platform has since been pulled from the UK in favour of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) launching HBO Max in March.
One more final key decision
The 2026/27 Champions League season will be the last year of TNT Sports’ UK and Ireland broadcast rights agreement, before Paramount+ take over the reins for the 2027/28 season.
Paramount+ will broadcast a lionshare of league phase games, play-off round games, and knockout stage games, from the quarter-finals to the final in the UK and Ireland.
Paramount will have the first pick of fixtures week-by-week, other than Amazon’s first pick on Tuesdays, but there will be limits to how many times it can showcase each club.
TNT Sports was reportedly interested in renewing its agreement for the next broadcast rights cycle with UEFA, which expires at the end of the 2030/31 season. However, Paramount lodged a bid which was “considerably higher” than the £1bn TNT Sports was currently paying, according to sources with knowledge on the matter cited by The Guardian.
However, Paramount secured Champions League broadcast rights before it beat out Netflix to acquire WBD in a multi-billion dollar deal.
TNT Sports would fall under the same umbrella as CBS Sports in the US, but internationally, it remains to be seen the approach Paramount will take if it were to sub-broadcast sporting events on one of its other media properties.
