Sony keeps Champions League, Europa League, Conference League broadcast rights | Football News
Leading Indian broadcaster, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI), has extended its collaboration with Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), with a renewal of exclusive broadcast and digital rights for showcasing the biggest European club football leagues that includes UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, UEFA Super Cup and UEFA Youth League.
The renewal is valid from the 2024/ 2025 season till the end of the 2026-2027 season. As part of the three-season renewal, the broadcaster will have access to showcase over 1600 football matches across its channels over three seasons. Audiences in India will get a chance to watch their favorite teams like Real Madrid, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool and more along with their favorite players like Kylian Mbappe, Mo Salah, Erling Haaland, Bruno Fernandes, Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane and Robert Lewandowski amongst others. These UEFA tournaments will be available exclusively on both linear television on Sony Sports Network as well as live-streamed on their on-demand OTT platform SonyLIV in the Indian subcontinent.
The UEFA Champions League will also be following a new format and competition system from 2024/25. From this season, four additional clubs will participate in the UEFA Champions League in a new league phase giving four more sides the opportunity to compete against the best clubs in Europe. 36 clubs will participate in this single league format in which all 36 competing clubs are ranked together. This will make this phase of the tournament even more exciting and would give the fans an opportunity to see more matches between the top teams. In addition to this, UEFA’s premier club competitions will no longer have a break in January, so fans can continue to enjoy non-stop European club football from August to May without any breaks in between.
Sony Sports Network will continue to telecast select UEFA Champions League matches in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu and the contribution of regional language coverage to the viewership of the league’s knockout matches has gone up in recent years. Over the last three years, the incremental reach contributed by the regional coverage has increased from 25% in the 2020/21 season to 38% in the last season (2022/23).
Sony Sports Network has been the home to UEFA Champions League since 2017 and this year the final is going to take place at the ‘Home of Football’, Wembley Stadium in London, England. In addition to this, Sony Sports Network continues to be the official broadcaster for the UEFA EURO 2024, Bundesliga, Emirates FA Cup, Roshn Saudi Pro League and more.
