News releases

ITV wins Champions League rights and becomes the home of live free-to-air football

ITV can today announce that it has retained the rights to broadcast UEFA Champions League matches as part of a new three-year deal covering the 2009-2012 seasons making the network the home of live football on free-to-air television.

From August 2009, ITV will broadcast the first pick of Wednesday night games throughout the tournament, including the Final and UEFA Super Cup Final – 18 live games in total – as well as highlights of all games. The deal includes both television and new media rights. ITV has held UEFA Champions League rights since the tournament’s inception in 1992.

The new deal will mean that for the next four years, ITV will be the home of premium live football on free-to-air television – broadcasting live UEFA Champions League, FA Cup and home England international matches until 2012.

Michael Grade, ITV Executive Chairman said: “I’m thrilled that ITV is now the definitive home for all premium free-to-air football in this country. This is good news for ITV’s shareholders, advertisers and of course our viewers. With Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United all through to the quarter final stage this year, British representation in Europe has never been stronger.”

The UEFA Champions League has been a huge success on ITV in recent years, with viewing figures for the 2006-7 season on ITV1 the highest since 2002-3 – helped by consistent British representation in the final stages of the competition including the last three finals. The competition’s biggest ever audience was for the 1999 final when 19 million tuned in to see Manchester United’s epic victory over Bayern Munich.

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