After 20 years, German pay-TV broadcaster Sky Deutschland will no longer show the games of the UEFA Champions League.
Streaming service DAZN, in addition to Amazon, has acquired the rights from the 2021/22 season, reports German newspaper Bild. DAZN will show the Wednesday games, while Amazon secured the Tuesday games for Amazon Prime Video. The agreement with UEFA runs for three years, according to the report.
Sky Deutschland has confirmed that it has lost the rights. “After around 20 years in partnership with UEFA, unfortunately we have not been able to agree to a new rights deal,” said CEO Carsten Schmidt. “We tried right up to the last minute to extend the rights beyond summer 2021, but in the interest of our customers we have a clear and disciplined approach to valuing sports rights and we were not prepared to pay in excess of our valuation.”
German public broadcaster ZDF will become involved in the UEFA Champions League again, showing the final games between 2022 and 2024, the broadcaster confirmed, adding that negotiations with UEFA regarding highlights summaries of the Wednesday matches are underway.
This means that live coverage of the competition will return to free-to-air TV again after being restricted to pay-TV subscribers in the period between 2018/19 and 2020/21, in which Sky Deutschland and DAZN share the rights.
