BBC to show Champions League highlights as BT loses stranglehold

BT SPORT has lost its stranglehold on Champions League football after almost a decade, ceding a handful of matches to Amazon and highlights to the BBC as regulators scrutinise its merger with Eurosport.

Amazon has won the rights to show games on Tuesday nights on its Prime Video service from 2024, UEFA is expected to announce today. BBC Match of the Day, meanwhile, will show Champions League highlights for the first time, with a Wednesday night package.

BT Sport, which is due to merge with Eurosport later this year, will retain the vast majority of games across the Champions League, Europa League and the third-tier Conference League.

It has enjoyed exclusive rights to UEFA club competitions since outbidding Sky in 2013 and retaining the majority of games will be seen as a welcome boost ahead of the merger with Eurosport.

Amazon’s intervention may also ease regulatory pressure on the deal, which the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating.

The US giant’s one game a week across Europe’s premier competition would mean it showing close to 20 games on Prime, making it a regular fixture in football broadcasting.

It currently has a Premier League deal that means it airs every fixture on two separate match weeks in mid-october and on Boxing Day.

Spending on football rights has eased after years of spiralling costs. The 2018 auction for Premier League rights brought in less than the previous round three years earlier and last year it extended its deal with Sky, BT and Amazon instead of soliciting fresh bids.

BT Sport’s bill is understood to have fallen by about 10pc despite the broadcaster showing more games as the competitions expand to 550 matches a year.

The Champions League is due to grow from 32 to 36 teams in 2024 under a new format.

The company announced in May that it planned to merge its sports channels with Eurosport, owned by America’s Warner Bros Discovery.

The telecoms group has been seeking to offload its sports business, which it set up to defend its broadband business from Sky.

The CMA is due to decide whether it will launch a “phase 2” in-depth investigation into the merger by the end of July. BT and Amazon did not comment.

The loss comes as tens of thousands of BT workers are preparing to walk out in a national strike for the first time since being privatised under Margaret Thatcher.

About 30,000 workers at Openreach and 9,000 call centre staff have voted to strike against what they described as an “unjust” and “unsustainable” wage deal.

However, a ballot of staff working at BT’S mobile subsidiary EE failed to reach the legal threshold of 50pc.

BT has offered staff an average pay rise of 5pc. Some of its lowest paid workers have been offered an increase of 8pc.

Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, said that BT must table a “significantly improved” offer by next week or strike dates will be set. He said: “Our members were never going to accept this imposition. BT Group thought they could get away with bullying treatment – they were wrong.”

A spokesman for BT said: “BT Group awarded its highest pay rise for frontline colleagues in more than 20 years.

“At the same time, we’re in the middle of a once-in-a-generation investment programme to upgrade the country’s broadband and mobile networks.”