Manchester City's Erling Haaland tangles with Inter Milan's Hakan Calhanoglu during the Uefa Champions League final in Istanbul on June 10. Photo / Getty Images
Manchester City's Erling Haaland tangles with Inter Milan's Hakan Calhanoglu during the Uefa Champions League final in Istanbul on June 10. Photo / Getty Images
So much for the dream of free Uefa Champions League football after Spark Sport content transitioned to TVNZ.
Exclusive New Zealand rights to the bulk of Spark’s Uefa content wound up with Qatar-owned international streamer beIN Sports.
“We did a one-year sublicence deal with Spark for just the Uefa clubcompetitions - the UCL, Europa and Conference Leagues,” a beIN spokesman told the Herald overnight.
BeIN is charging $179 for an annual pass, or $129 for those who sign up before August 19.
Beyond the new Uefa content, the pass gives access to beIN’s existing slate, including the Carabao Cup, Serie A, Ligue 1 and English Football League (EFL) Championship games.
The Champions League - which features the top-four-placed teams from the English Premier League’s previous season, plus other top teams from around Europe - is a staple of pay TV providers around the world, so the promise of accessing it free-to-air on TVNZ as part of the Spark Sport palm-off would have been a bonus for local fans. Photo / AP
In May last year, as it entered what proved to be its final 12 months of operation, Spark Sport renewed its Uefa deal for the above leagues and added the inter-country Euro 2024 and Euro 2028 competitions - which could still turn up on TVNZ.
“We are still in discussions there and we hope to update viewers soon,” a TVNZ spokeswoman told the Herald on June 8 when asked about the absence of Uefa content in the PR around the July 1 transfer of Spark Sport content to TVNZ.
Yesterday, the spokeswoman said there was no further update.
Sky TV had already regained rights to two Spark Sport mainstays - English Premier League football and F1 - by the time the telco’s streaming service was shuttered.
But the Herald understands Sky did not even bid for Uefa rights when Spark carved them off its TVNZ deal and put them on the block.
Nor did the pay-TV broadcaster repeat its historic strategy of partnering with beIN.
Sky inked a four-year deal with BeIN in September 2019, which saw BeIN content on Sky Sport, and Sky subscribers get free access to streamed content on BeIN’s app - extending a partnership between the two broadcasters that had already been in place for three years.
That deal was not renewed, BeIN said this week.
“BeIN Sports New Zealand recently parted ways with a seven-year partnership with Sky New Zealand,” the company said in a statement.
“With this development, the beIN Sports Connect OTT [”over the top”, or streaming] platform now stands as the exclusive destination for fans seeking a diverse selection of live and on-demand football content.”
The 2023-24 Champions League properly kicks off on September 19. Qualifying rounds are already under way.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
