UEFA Champions League on United States television

The UEFA Champions League (also known as the European Cup) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competition winners. The competition attracts an extensive television audience, not just in Europe, but throughout the world. The final of the tournament has been, in recent years, the most-watched annual sporting event in the world.[1] The final of the 2012–13 tournament had the competition's highest TV ratings to date, drawing approximately 360 million television viewers.[2]

History

ESPN (1995-2009)
See also: Soccer on ESPN

ESPN formerly had the rights of the UEFA Champions League between 1995-2009. Lead commentary team was Derek Rae and Tommy Smyth with the ESPN2 team being Adrian Healey and Robbie Mustoe. The pre-match programme was hosted by Andrew Orsatti.

Fox Sports (2011–2018)
See also: Soccer on Fox Sports

Fox formerly aired the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League from 2011–2018.[3] Fox Sports provided live coverage through May 2015. Fox Sports Media Group had the first, second, and third picks of live matches for each night of the competition. Different live matches would air on Fox Soccer, Fox Soccer Plus, Fox Deportes and regional Fox Sports Net affiliates, with rebroadcasts on Fox Soccer. DirecTV broadcasts all remaining matches during the playoff round and the group stage. Fox Soccer would air semifinal matches on Tuesdays and FX would air semifinal matches on Wednesdays. The final would air live free-to-air on Fox.

Rob Stone hosted UEFA Champions League coverage alongside a rotation of analysts including Warren Barton, Brad Friedel, Eric Wynalda, Stuart Holden, and Alexi Lalas. Lead broadcast team for non World-Feed broadcasts of UEFA Champions League from 2013–2014 was Gus Johnson and Eric Wynalda, until John Strong and Stuart Holden or Brad Friedel replaced them as lead commentator for the rest of the contract. Ian Joy or Kate Abdo hosted UEFA Europa League coverage alongside analysts Stuart Holden, Warren Barton, and Mario Melchiot. The lead broadcast team for Europa League coverage was Keith Costigan and Alexi Lalas. For World-Feed broadcasts, Tony Jones (football reporter) and David Pleat called both UEFA Champions League Final and UEFA Europa League Final.

Turner Sports and Univision Deportes (2018–2020)
See also: Soccer on Turner Sports and TUDN_(TV_network) § Soccer

In January 2016, Univision acquired Spanish-language rights to UEFA tournaments beginning in 2018, including UEFA Euro 2020 and the UEFA Nations League, with the channel planned to be involved in coverage.[4] In 2017, Univision acquired Spanish-language rights to the UEFA Champions League and Europa League beginning in 2018-19.[5]

In 2017, Turner Sports announced that they had retained the rights to air all of the matches from the UEFA Champions League live. The contract runs from 2018–2021. Tuner later announced that they would air 4 matches per week on TNT and the remainder of the matches on new streaming service B/R Live.[6] All matches will be commentated through world feed.

CBS Sports (2021–)
See also: Soccer on CBS Sports

Originally the UEFA Champions League[7], UEFA Europa League, and UEFA Super Cup would've aired on CBS Sports networks starting from the 2021–22 seasons. But due to Turner Sports has decided to resign after airing most matches at the round of 16 in 2019–20 season, CBS advanced and extended the competitions rights for one and half (one for UEFA Super Cup) seasons earlier starting from the quarter finals in 2019–20 season (including the remaining round of 16 matches).[8][9][10][11]

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See also

References
  1. "Champions League final tops Super Bowl for TV market". BBC Sport. British Broadcasting Corporation. 31 January 2010. Retrieved 25 February 2010.
  2. Chishti, Faisal (30 May 2013). "Champions League final at Wembley drew TV audience of 360 million". Sportskeeda. Absolute Sports Private Limited. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
  3. "Turner's soccer shocker". Sports Business Daily. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  4. "Univision lands Spanish rights to UEFA tournaments". SI.com. Retrieved 2019-07-20.
  5. "UEFA Champions League comes to Univision". SI.com. Retrieved 2019-07-20.
  6. Lodderhouse, Diana. "Turner Acquires U.S. Rights To UEFA Soccer Games, Plans To Launch OTT Sports Platform". Deadline.
  7. Lucia, Joe (July 30, 2020). "CBS Sports announces UEFA Champions League talent, including Kate Abdo, Jamie Carragher, Roberto Martinez". Awful Announcing.
  8. Harris, Christopher (November 12, 2019). "CBS reveals more details about UEFA Champions League plans". WorldSoccerTalk. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
  9. "CBS, Univision Land Champions League Rights In Surprising Deal". Sports Business Daily. November 8, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  10. "UEFA Champions League and Europa League come to CBS Sports with new U.S. TV rights deal". CBSSports.com. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
  11. "CBS secures shock Champions League US rights deal, say reports". SportsPro Media. Retrieved 2019-11-26.
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