Championship is a pipe dream now.
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Yeah it’s hard to see it goin ahead.
Virgin Media Television has missed out on UEFA Champions League action in the bidding process for the Irish television rights to the next three seasons, amid inflation in the price.
It is understood that RTÉ has retained its rights to the pick of Tuesday night matches from the 2021-22 season onwards but that a new bidder has entered the fray, outbidding Virgin to take the majority of match packages.
UEFA, the European footballing body, is thought to still be in final negotiations with this bidder ahead of an announcement of a new Irish three-year deal.
The rise in price has furthered speculation that Amazon Prime Video or sports streaming service DAZN – which recently won the German rights to the Champions League – are pursuing rights in the Irish market.
Alternatively, a consortium of investors may be seeking to acquire and then sub-license the rights to broadcasters here.
The news was shared with staff at the Ballymount-based broadcaster on Monday.
“We made a competitive bid that was slightly higher than last time for the packages we wanted,” said Virgin Media Television managing director Paul Farrell. He added that Virgin was “disappointed” but also “happy to walk away” rather than pay more than the rights were worth to the company.
Six Nations rights
Virgin is now expected to focus its budget and attention on renewing its rights to Six Nations rugby, which expire this year, and perhaps bidding for certain GAA rights such as winter league matches or the Club Championships.
The loss of Champions League will be felt at Virgin, which used the matches to populate Virgin Media Sport as well as bring a big mid-week audience to its free-to-air channels.
The broadcaster, then known as TV3, won the dominant share of rights to Champions League and Europa League matches for three years in a 2018 deal, which significantly extended its previous holdings and gave it access to more than 300 matches in a season not affected by Covid-19.
European football coverage from BT Sport, the UK rights holder, is also available to Irish viewers if they pay for BT Sport through Sky.
BT has already been awarded the exclusive UK rights for the next three years, up to and including the 2023-24 season, with the company paying £1.2 billion (€1.4 billion) for Champions League and Europa League rights – a little more than it did in the previous auction.
RTE no money for Irish soccer highlights show, but plenty money for Tuesday nights of CL football. Bunch of footix
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Would be an ideal opportunity for DAZN to make a move. The only have boxing available in Ireland at the moment.
Who are the new competitors who have claimed the Champions League on Wednesday nights? TG4 with an audacious bid?
Surely Ireland wouldnt be a big enough market for Dazn and Amazon?
Eir Sports being wound up. They are not bidding for any sports viewing rights in the future.
You can forget about your Eirsports
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IrishTV to take over the Saturday night Allianz league
Matchroom is to move their UK and Irish boxing cards from Sky to DAZN starting in July. Basically all of Sky’s boxing content is with Matchroom so not good news for them. DAZN an interesting model and even available in Cambodia.
How is Hearn going to build up Conor Benn etc on Dazn? Strange move to me.
Via their own Matchroom production content and IFL etc. Would imagine DAZN will acquire rights for other sports soon also in time. They have deep pockets. Sky has been great for the EPL but some other sports suffer as a result.
Who’s bankrolling DANZ ?
I follow boxing but casual fans would pick up more on upcoming fights from sky sports news rather than matchroom’s own social media in my opinion. Going to be difficult to built up pay per fighters on Dazn.
Twitter, FB, Insta, Snapchat probably just as easy to promote to viewers as Sky Sports News
Have my doubts.
Sky sports news has a small viewership. There are other ways to generate traction with casual fans and I think Matchroom/DAZN will spend heavily to do so.