Virgin Media have picked up the free to air rights for Champions League soccer for the next three years, and will also be the exclusive broadcaster of the Europa League and Europa Conference League for the same period.
The confirmation that for casual viewers things will remain as they were last season, means that there are now four broadcasters with rights to show the Champions League here.
RTÉ has retained the first pick of Tuesday night games, and the rights to show the Final. BT Sport as part of the Sky Sports Extra pack will show all games behind a subscription paywall. Livescore will show all games via their streaming app free to air.
Virgin media had withdrawn from the bidding to secure the main package of all games earlier this year but the way it has worked out viewers will notice little change.
The coverage will start with live coverage of the UEFA European Super Cup from Windsor Park in Belfast next Wednesday, August 11th between Chelsea and Villareal.
There has been no confirmation of the presenter line ups but it is expected that Tommy martin will return alongside Niall Quinn, Brian Kerr and Graeme Souness.
It means there will be multiple ways to watch the games, and at multiple price points which can only be a good thing for consumers. The quality of the viewing experience will be different along the scale but for the biggest games each week there will be at least some measure of free to air coverage.
There has been a sense of frustration among SSE Airtricity league clubs that their runs in European competition this summer have not been covered at all on TV and with Virgin securing this rights package to the Europa Conference League there is now a possibility that if Bohemians, Dundalk or Shamrock Rovers make it to the Final Qualifying round after this week and next week’s matches, that those games could yet be picked up.
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