European soccer’s governing body UEFA has extended the tender covering media rights for its top-tier club competitions in the 2024-27 cycle to Belgium and Portugal.
UEFA has opened tender processes in those countries for the 2024-25, 2025-26, and 2026-27 seasons of the top-tier Champions League (UCL), second-tier Europa League, and third-tier Europa Conference League (to be renamed the Conference League from next season).
The Belgian tender went live on September 18, with a deadline for submission of bids of October 16, while in Portugal, the equivalent dates are September 20 and October 26, respectively.
In Portugal, Champions League action is currently shown predominantly by over-the-top streaming service DAZN (which launched in the country in July this year), while free-to-air (FTA) broadcaster TVI carries one game per match day. DAZN recently acquired previous rightsholder Eleven ago.
For Belgian fans, meanwhile, rights are split between telecoms operator Proximus, FTA broadcaster RTL, and the VTM channel.
Belgium is represented in the 2023-24 UCL by Royal Antwerp, and Portugal by Benfica, Braga, and Porto. There are also clubs from both countries in the Europa League, and three from Belgium in the Europa Conference League.
Those latter two competitions are covered in Portugal by Sport TV and by SIC.
The sales are being handled by Team Marketing, UEFA’s partner agency for media and commercial rights sales across its club competitions. All inquiries should, therefore, be directed to info@team.ch.
These are the first European tender processes for the next rights cycle to go live since early June when UEFA opened one in Ireland.
Contracts have already been signed across the continent in major markets such as the UK, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland.
The last completed deal was a tie-up between UEFA and RTL Hungary.
Outside of Europe, meanwhile, deals have been agreed in the US and Australia.
From the 2024-25 season, the Champions League will take on a new single-league format, with the competition expanding from 32 to 36 teams, and incorporating 189 matches instead of the current 125.
