Every Champions League game to be streamed live in Ireland, but what now for TV rights?
Chelsea's Cesar Azpilicueta (centre) and team-mates celebrate with the trophy after the UEFA Champions League final match held at Estadio do Dragao in Porto, Portugal. Picture date: Saturday May 29, 2021.
Every Uefa Champions League game for the next three years will be streamed live in Ireland by the LiveScore app.
The popular app — which came to prominence as a provider of latest scores and text updates on games, has diversified into screening games live in recent seasons. Serie A matches could be viewed on the platform last season.
Now the app has secured a landmark three-year deal to screen all Champions League ties in Ireland.
The agreement, which begins next season, covers 137 matches each season, with a commitment that the games will be screened fully free to air.
104 of the matches will be broadcast exclusively on LiveScore, while 33 will also be available via other media.
RTÉ Sport last week confirmed it had secured 16 matches on Tuesday nights from 2021 to 2024, as well as the final, but it hasn't yet been confirmed who has secured Wednesday night TV rights for the Irish market. Virgin Media announced earlier this year it would not be continuing its Champions League coverage.
As part of its deal announcement, LiveScore have confirmed that viewers will have the ability to 'cast' coverage to their TV screens.
For the 2021/22 campaign, Livescore will also screen 306 Serie A games, 102 Primeira Liga (Portugal) matches, pus 142 games from the Dutch Eredivisie.
LiveScore was founded in 1998 and following its acquisition in 2017 became part of the Anzo Group in 2019.
The LiveScore statement reads:
"LiveScore has today announced a three-year rights deal within Ireland to live-stream 137 matches each season in the UEFA Champions League fully free-to-air on the LiveScore app.
"From the 2021/22 UCL season LiveScore, the global sports media business and one of the world’s leading real-time sports updates and streaming service providers, will be the exclusive free-to-air broadcaster of 104 UCL fixtures per season in Ireland.
"The remaining 33 ties, including the UEFA Champions League Final, will also be live-streamed on a non-exclusive basis. The landmark deal ensures football fans in Ireland will be able to watch every single UCL fixture on a fully free-to-air platform, via the LiveScore app for iOS and Android."
Ric Leask, Marketing Director at LiveScore, said:
“We are extremely excited to announce this significant new rights deal, which will provide fully free-to-air live coverage of every single UEFA Champions League match to football fans in Ireland. We look forward to being there for every step of the season, as we bring our users closer to the action with our full offering of live-streamed matches and supporting content.”
Guy-Laurent Epstein, Marketing Director at UEFA, added;
“UEFA is delighted to welcome LiveScore as the new broadcaster of UEFA Champions League rights in the Republic of Ireland. We are excited to see the innovative coverage it will deliver and to bring comprehensive coverage of the best of European club football to Irish fans for free.”
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