Champions League win for ITV as BT marches on

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Champions League win for ITV as BT marches on
November 23, 2013 20.44 Europe/London By Chris Dziadul

ITV has agreed a new deal with UEFA that will allow it to show highlights of Champions League and Europa League matches for three years, starting from the 2015/2016 season.

At the same time, BT Sport has secured co-exclusive on demand online and mobile clip rights with News UK to 350 live matches per season from the Champions League and Europa League from the 2015/2016 season.

Each week during the Champions League and Europa League competitions, ITV will show comprehensive highlights programmes covering all the week’s Champions League games on Wednesday nights and on Thursday nights for the Europa League.

Also included in its deal are highlights of both finals and the UEFA Super Cup.

Highlights from both competitions will be made available on itv.com and on mobile.

Commenting on the deal, Niall Sloane, ITV director of sports, said: “We are happy to have secured these highlights packages and to be able to bring them to a significant free-to-air viewership.

“ITV continues to show live coverage and highlights of Champions League and Europa League matches until 2015. It is the exclusive broadcaster of all England’s international World Cup and European Championship qualifying matches and friendlies until 2018. lTV also shows the FA Cup until the end of the 2013/2014 season.”

Although ITV also has the rights to England’s World cup and European qualifying matches and friendlies until 2018, it has lost the rights to the FA Cup after this season, with them being shared by the BBC and BT for four years from 2014/2015.

Meanwhile, the new BT Sport deal will allow its subscribers to watch clips of the action afterwards from all the matches on their mobile, tablet or laptop via the BT Sport app and www.btsport.com.

John Petter, chief executive, BT Consumer, said: “BT Sport has already pledged to make UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League action far more accessible and affordable for customers. The addition of clips rights means that fans need not worry about missing any of the vital moments from matches.”
 
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