French media outlet and broadcaster L’Equipe has acquired free-to-air domestic rights to European soccer’s UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL) club competition.
Through a multi-year agreement, the L’Equipe channel will broadcast one UWCL game per matchday live, including the final.
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This comes after the media group recently aired the 2024-25 final between Arsenal and Barcelona.
The L'Équipe channel will primarily broadcast matches of French clubs when they compete. OL Lyonnais, formerly Olympique Lyonnais Féminin, are the most successful team in the competition's history, winning eight titles.
The deal was struck with UC3, the commercial entity responsible for revenue generation from the various UEFA club competitions – the Two Circles agency, meanwhile, is also working with UC3 on UWCL rights deals.
In terms of other media rights activity around the women's soccer tournament, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the umbrella body of free-to-air broadcasters across the continent, recently secured a package of rights from UEFA to handle free-to-air distribution of the tournament.
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By GlobalDataThrough its rights package, the EBU will bring one game per matchweek to public-service broadcasters in close to 30 European territories, including Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Norway.
Highlights and shoulder content produced by Eurovision Sport, the EBU’s free-to-air streaming service, will be available to members to supplement their broadcasts.
The EBU has sublicensed major UWCL fixtures for its member broadcasters In previous years.
Primary rights to the UWCL are held by the Disney+ streaming platform after the media giant acquired rights to the competition in Europe on a five-year deal, running from the 2025-26 season through 2029-30.
As part of the deal with UC3, the joint venture set up by UEFA and the European Club Association, the service is set to showcase all 75 UWCL fixtures each season across the region.
The 2025-26 UWCL campaign will begin with the qualification stage on July 30 and run through to the final at the Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo in late May 2026.
