BT pays £1.2bn to extend Champions League and Europa rights

BT Group said on Monday it would pay £1.18bn for the rights to broadcast all UEFA Champions League and Europa League football until the 2021 season.

The company said the deal had secured the exclusive rights to all live games, highlights and in-match clips of both competitions.

BT will pay around £394m each year for the rights. The company said that after last year's acquisition of EE, which more than doubled its marketable customer base, it was “in a strong position to monetise this investment through subscription, wholesale, commercial, and advertising revenues”.

Unlike under the current deal there will no longer be a highlights show on ITV, but BT said it would enhance coverage via social media coverage by making clips, weekly highlights, UEFA's magazine show, and both finals available for free on the likes of Twitter and Facebook.

BT streamed both finals last year on YouTube for the first time, taking the number of people who watched BT's live coverage of the finals to more than 12m.

A new development from the UEFA Champions League for the 2018/19 season are ‘double header’ nights, where live matches will kick off at both 6pm and 8pm during the group stage, which will increase the amount of games on television

Currently, all Champions League group games are played at 7:45 on a Tuesday and Wednesday night.