The Polish arm of multinational pay-TV broadcaster Canal Plus has announced that it has secured the exclusive rights to Europe’s iconic UEFA Champions League continental club soccer competition for the next cycle.
Through the multi-year deal, which will last from the beginning of the 2024-25 season through the end of the 2026-27 campaign, Canal Plus Polska will exclusively broadcast every match from each of the three Champions League seasons, as well as its youth category equivalent UEFA Youth League, and its annual pre-season UEFA Super Cup exhibition match.
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Games will be broadcast to Canal’s three million-plus subscribers in Poland, on linear TV via Canal Plus, as well as on its in-house OTT streaming service in the country.
The tender for these rights had been launched in Poland on January 30, with a bid deadline of February 27.
Edyta Sadowska, president and general director of CANAL+ Polska, stated: “[Canal Plus has] been providing our viewers in Poland with access to the best sports events and unforgettable emotions. The [return of] UEFA Champions League is the best confirmation of this.”
The 2024-25 edition of the UEFA Champions League will be the first to feature the competition’s new format and coefficient system.
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By GlobalDataAll three UEFA competitions, the Champions League, second-tier Europa League, and tertiary Conference League, will now feature a “league stage” where each team plays eight matches in a total league table of 36 teams, as opposed to the current system of eight groups of four teams playing each other.
Furthermore, two clubs will be allowed to enter each year’s edition based on the historical performance of each country’s teams
The Champions League deal will begin with the 2024 UEFA Super Cup, which is set to be hosted in Poland at Warsaw’s Stadion Narodowy on August 14, in which the winner of the 2023-24 Champions League will play the winner of the 2023-24 Europa League.
With this deal, Canal Plus brings the number of countries in which it has secured UEFA club competition rights for the next cycle to over 50, including France, Switzerland, Poland, and a number of French-speaking territories in sub-Saharan Africa.
With the deal, Canal adds to its slate of soccer rights in the country, already serving as the broadcaster of Poland’s domestic top-tier, the PKO Ekstraklasa, as well as England’s Premier League and Spain’s LaLiga.
UEFA, meanwhile, began a tender process covering media rights to its various club competitions in Ukraine, earlier this week.
