A seismic shift in European football broadcasting has arrived: US media titan Paramount has secured the UK rights to the Champions League for four seasons from 2027, agreeing a deal reportedly worth well above the near-£1bn sum TNT Sports currently pays.
The move reshapes the TV landscape and promises a fresh, star-studded era for how British audiences will watch Europe’s flagship club competition.
What the deal means for viewers and the market
• Big-name buyer: Paramount’s entry brings another global heavyweight into the fragmented UK football rights market.
• Amazon remains: Amazon Prime continues to hold the Tuesday night pick from 2027 to 2031, keeping its weekly Champions League showcase.
• TNT loses out: TNT Sports will surrender Champions League coverage from 2027 but will still offer Premier League Saturday lunch-time matches and FA Cup rights.
• Sky expands: Sky has meanwhile won exclusive UK rights to every Europa League and Conference League match across four seasons from 2027–28, giving it a huge portfolio of 342 games per season.
The result is clear: more choice for viewers, more bidders chasing premium sport, and almost certain higher household bills for fans who want everything.
Why UEFA changed tack — and won
Fed up with static broadcast income, UEFA opted for an ambitious commercial strategy led by the UC3 initiative and Relevent, targeting “global, digital-first” platforms.
The result was a simultaneous, cross-market tender across several top European territories — and Paramount emerged as the surprise winner in the UK, bolstered by its recent creative collaborations with UEFA on the Champions League draw productions.
The headline outcome: a richer rights pot for UEFA and a broadcast market that has decisively pivoted from traditional pay-TV giants toward streaming-first players.
Fans: more platforms, bigger bills
As rights splinter across multiple providers, supporters face a familiar and unwelcome truth: watching every game will likely require several subscriptions. Example monthly costs as the market stands:
TV licence: £14.54
Sky with Sports: £50
TNT Sports add-on: £30.99
Amazon Prime for Tuesday pick: £8.99
Paramount+ basic: £4.99
Stack these and the total climbs quickly — and that’s before factoring in services such as Premier Sports, Disney+ for La Liga and the Women’s Champions League, or future entrants like Netflix and DAZN that have been linked with rights bids. With Paramount and other streamers circling, the average fan could find their monthly bill swelling from 2027 onward.
Paramount+ — new home for Europe’s elite?
Paramount already runs Paramount+ in the UK as a movie-and-series streamer and broadcasts the Champions League in the United States on CBS. This marks Paramount’s first major onshore sporting foray in the UK.
Questions remain about the delivery model: will matches sit behind Paramount+ as part of its tiers, be sold as a separate football add-on, or be distributed through partner bundles (for example via Sky or Amazon Prime Video).
Paramount also owns Channel 5, opening a pragmatic route to satisfy the rule that the Champions League final must be made available free-to-air; Channel 5 could provide that one-stop terrestrial solution.
The future of televised football: fragmentation, streaming, and drama
The shift is neither small nor incremental. It completes a longer trend away from single-broadcaster dominance, a trajectory that began when BT Sport disrupted the market a decade ago and accelerated with pay-per-view and streaming plays this year.
Streaming offers global scale and fresh revenue streams for UEFA, but relies on robust broadband and accepted viewing delays compared with traditional channels.
For rights-holders, the gamble paid off: UEFA rolled the dice and secured bigger money from new partners. For viewers, the prize is greater choice and production ambition; the cost is the proliferation of subscriptions and the end of simpler, bundled access.
Final act: sport, business and broadcast collide
Paramount’s win is a landmark moment: a US streaming-and-broadcast conglomerate stepping into UK live football at the highest level, Sky cementing its European club-football dominance, and Amazon keeping its weekly blockbuster slot.
The ripple effects will touch clubs, leagues and households alike as the next chapter of Champions League coverage opens in 2027 — loud, lavish and unmistakably digital.
