Proximus and Telenet, the Belgian telecoms firms, have secured a package of rights to European soccer’s UEFA club competitions for the next three-year cycle.
The operators will provide co-exclusive coverage of the top-tier UEFA Champions League (UCL) through the 2026-2027 season, while Telenet will hold exclusive rights to the second-tier Europa League, and third-tier Europa Conference League (to be renamed the Conference League from 2024-25).
Proximus’ deal sees the company renew its agreement for pay-television rights to the UCL but will no longer have exclusivity.
The telecoms group will continue to provide coverage on its Pickx digital TV service for the 2024-25, 2025-26, and 2026-27 seasons.
Meanwhile, Telenet will show all three UEFA club competitions for the 2024-27 period, with matches to be aired on its Play Sports TV channel.
Telenet will have exclusive Dutch-language pay-TV rights to the Europa League and Conference League.
All matches from the two competitions will be shown live in Flanders exclusively on Play Media or Play Sports.
Last week, free-to-air (FTA) Champions League rights in Belgium for the next three seasons were retained by incumbent partners RTL (French language) and VTM (Dutch language).
Royal Antwerp represent Belgium in the 2023-24 UCL, while Royale Union Saint-Gilloise is in the Europa League, and Gent, Club Brugge, and Genk are competing in the Conference League.
The UCL’s current format will be altered substantially for 2024-25, taking on a new single-league structure instead of being split into multiple groups from which teams qualify for the knockout stage.
The competition will expand from 32 to 36 teams and incorporate 189 matches instead of 125.
UEFA recently opened a tender process for its club competitions in sub-Saharan Africa. That process has a bid deadline of December 11.
