BT facing TV critisicm ahead of looming Champions League rights auction

BT Group may not be allowed to retain exclusive UK rights to broadcast Champions League football after the current three-season deal, giving confidence to ITV and Sky when they return to the bidding table later this year.

A senior official at the European football governing body has, according to a report in the Daily Mail, said that Uefa regard the exclusive, £897m deal signed in 2013 with BT as a "mistake".

The newspaper suggested BT was not delivering sufficient viewing figures for the premier European football competition.

Analysts at Exane BNP Paribas recently said they saw "more attractive risk/reward" for Sky heading into the next UK Champions League auction, "with either BT suffering a large pricing step up or the market illustrating much sought after discipline".

BNP's telecoms team expect 30% inflation in Champions League rights for BT.

BT drew a peak audience of just over 1m viewers for Manchester City's quarter-final first leg at Paris Saint-Germain last week, five times less than the number ordinarily drawn by ITV.

As part of BT’s bid, it pledged to show at least 12 Champions League and Europa League games free-to-air to reach the widest possible audience.

Newspaper reports earlier this year indicated free‑to-air coverage was forced upon BT by Uefa’s marketing agency, with a source claiming that the result had been BT's half-hearted approach to its free-to-air Showcase channel.

It was understood that Uefa will insist upon some changes to the existing model when it sells the rights to the 2018‑21 seasons, according to the Telegraph, which was said to possibly include demanding a better free-to-air offering or taking the entire competition behind a paywall remains to be seen.

ITV argued that comparing viewing numbers of a channel that launched this season with ITV, which has been running for decades, was "unfair".

Uefa's new tendering process for the next Champions League rights cycle will start later this year and it is expected that ITV or another terrestrial partner will return, with Sky and BT competing for the other share of the rights.