The old guard of BBC and ITV are coming together to share the rights to the upcoming European Football Championships.
UEFA announced Wednesday that both public broadcasters will split the rights to each tournament equally, with matches divided between broadcasters until a shared final.
This arrangement maintains free-to-air coverage of the men’s UEFA European Championships and reflects the pattern for multiple previous UEFA Euro editions and FIFA World Cups, as well as the forthcoming Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022, which begins on 20 November.
UEFA Euro 2024, hosted by Germany, will see 24 teams compete across 51 matches during the tournament, with the hosts and format for UEFA Euro 2028 still to be announced.
“The BBC has proven time and again that we have the ability to bring the biggest sporting events to the widest audience,” said Barbara Slater, Director BBC Sport. “The previous UEFA European Championships were a huge success so we’re delighted that we’ve completed this deal for the next two tournaments that we hope will provide even more memorable moments for viewers.”
“This deal keeps the Euros available on free-to-air television for viewers for the coming years,” adds Niall Sloane, ITV Director of Sport. “Having delivered the biggest ever UK single channel football audience of 27.6 million at last year’s Euros, for England’s semi-final victory over Denmark, we’re looking forward to bringing to the widest audiences the very best coverage of tournaments that have such broad appeal.”
However, the 2024 tournament hosts were not so lucky. In 2019 it was announced German telco Deutsche Telekom has acquired the TV rights for the Championship. There remains the possibility that some of the rights might be sublicensed to a free-to-air broadcaster.
