Premiere wins all UEFA CL TV rights

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UEFA has signed a three-year deal awarding both free and pay-TV Champions League broadcast rights in Germany to a single television company, Premiere. Although UEFA received several offers it has believed that Premiere offered the best package offering to broadcast all games live with an extensive offering of highlights and the analysis of games. The contract will start in the 2006/07 season and end in 2009. UEFA noted that Premiere announced that it intends to acquire a free-to-air broadcaster and reserve the right to reassign the terrestrial free-to-air rights to another German broadcaster should Premiere fail to do so before the start of the contract. Premier currently shares the rights to games with free-to-air commercial network ProSiebenSat.1 and has offered to broadcast 13 games per season - one per match week - available free-to-air when it acquires the new channel. Press reports value the total contract at around EU200m.

UEFA chief executive Lars-Christer Olsson said: ‘Premiere has shown a tremendous commitment to the sport of football and to Uefa Champions League specifically. What they bring to the broadcasts in terms of their presentation, production experience and commitment, resources and expertise is second to none in Germany…‘We are naturally disappointed that this means Sat.1 will not be continuing as a Uefa Champions League broadcast partner beyond 2006, as we greatly appreciate the contribution they have made, and continue to make, to the competition on German television.”

Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge expressed concerned that the majority of club’s fans will be unable to see the Bundesliga club at the Champions League campaign. Rummenigge fears that from next season Premiere might be tempted to show top games only to their 3.3 million subscribers, leaving the majority of German football fans in the dark. “We are afraid that all of our games will only be available on Pay-TV and we are very concerned about this development,” declared Rummenigge, who criticized UEFA for failing to discuss their decision with any of Germany’s three Champions League starters.