BBC And BSkyB Set To Bid For Champions League Rights

The BBC and BSkyB are reportedly preparing bids to secure the broadcast rights to the European Champions League football tournament.

ITV, which has held a significant proportion of the rights since it bid for them in 1998, is expected to face tough competition when rights for the next three years of games become available in the next few months.

According to a report in today’s Guardian, both the BBC and BSkyB are keen to prise the rights away from ITV, which has been hard hit by the advertising downturn and the collapse of ITV Digital (see ITV Digital Will Be Sold As ‘Going Concern’).

There are a number of rights packages available and it is understood that ITV will focus its efforts on retaining those played on Tuesday’s so as not to disrupt audiences for Coronation Street on a Wednesday evening.

Channel 5 is also expected to enter the bidding for the rights, which are being sold by governing body UEFA and promoted by TEAM.

ITV has had arough ride recently and the network saw viewing figures fall to an all time low in July, with ITV1 recording an audience share of just 22.5% for the month. This represents a 1.5% decline on the previous month’s audience share, which was a healthier 24%, but is down 4.6% on the figure for July 2001, which was 27.1% (see ITV Sees Audience Share Slide In July).

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk BSkyB: 020 7705 3000 www.sky.com

Recent TV Stories from NewsLine Granada’s Morrison Set To Take Early Retirement Granada Gets On The Ball With Sponsorship Deal New Cadbury’s Sponsorship Idents For Coronation Street

Subscribers can access ten years of NewsLine articles by clicking the Search button to the left