German football fans should get used to the new name – and subscribe again soon. At least if they want to watch Champions League matches at home starting in the 2027/2028 season.
American media group Paramount Skydance has surprisingly acquired the majority of broadcast rights for Germany and the UK, as announced by joint marketing organization UEFA and European Football Clubs association UC3 on Friday.
This is by far its most significant move in Europe in terms of sports broadcasting. He has held Champions League rights in his home market since 2019.
DAZN will soon be without the Champions League in Germany
In principle, there has been speculation about the possibility of stronger involvement of US media companies in European football for years in every major human rights tender.
But in Germany so far only Amazon is buying Champions League small packages. The group shows games on Tuesdays on its Prime service, but has free choice and can always choose the games that may be of most interest to German fans. All other matches in Germany so far have been broadcast by streaming service DAZN. The package has now gone to Paramount, whose boss David Ellison is a central player on the pitch.
Amazon keeps its “best gaming package”, but switches to Wednesdays for four seasons starting in 2027/28. Something similar happens in the UK: Here too, Amazon owns the rights to superior products and will defend them.
2.5 billion euros for UEFA from the top five markets
Rights to other games were previously held by TNT Sports, a subsidiary of American entertainment group Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount has now taken over this package, although it is possible that this transaction will ultimately be of no significance. Because Paramount is currently trying to buy Warner.
It is not known how much will be paid for the coveted Champions League rights. According to the Bloomberg news agency, UEFA is now able to increase the expected revenues from the upcoming rights period for the five most important markets in negotiations by 20 percent compared to now.
Therefore, the future umbrella organization of European football will earn around 2.5 billion euros per year from marketing men’s club competitions. As well as Germany and the UK, rights for France, Italy and Spain were also transferred as part of the tender.
Formula 1 or NFL: Apple and Netflix also buy sports rights
Paramount’s move did not come out of nowhere, because the company already holds the rights to the Champions League for the US. Sports rights in general are highly sought after in the media industry, and companies that specialize solely in streaming are also driving this market.
Netflix, for example, shows boxing matches and last year acquired the rights to NFL Christmas games for $150 million. Apple, in turn, broadcasts matches from the US soccer league Major League Soccer (MLS) on its Apple TV streaming service and recently acquired Formula 1 rights for the American market. Apple TV has co-produced “F1,” the hit film with Brad Pitt about premier-class motorsport.
The purchase of the Champions League rights was another aggressive maneuver by Paramount – and also by David and Larry Ellison, who quickly catapulted themselves into the premier league of American media moguls. Paramount Skydance was only created in its current form in August after film studio Skydance, led by David Ellison, purchased the much larger Paramount group.
Ellison is already planning his next coup and targets Warner
David’s father Larry, co-founder of the software company Oracle and one of the richest men in the world, helped significantly with the funding. According to Forbes magazine, Larry Ellison owns nearly half of the shares in the combined company. Just weeks after this transaction was completed, it was announced that Paramount was working on its next takeover bid and wanted to buy Warner. Warner will put it up for sale in October and the bidding process is now underway.
Paramount clearly faces competition. As the New York Times writes, this week Paramount, Netflix and the entertainment group Comcast, owner of the Universal film studio, have announced bids for Warner. Paramount apparently wants to be the sole bidder to buy the entire Warner group, including its television channels. Netflix and Comcast are said to be only interested in film studios and the streaming business.
According to the report, Paramount does not want to rely solely on Larry Ellison’s wealth to finance the transaction, but instead has financial investors as partners. There will also be talks with sovereign wealth funds from the Middle East.
Which is already part of the Paramount empire today
If Paramount wins the deal for Warner, the two major media conglomerates will merge. In addition to the film studio of the same name, Paramount also owns television channels such as CBS, MTV and Nickelodeon.
In addition to the Warner film studio, under the Warner umbrella there are television channels such as CNN, HBO and the TNT channel, which has so far shown the Champions League in the UK. If the Ellison family controls CNN and CBS in the future, they will have enormous power over the types of news programming Americans watch.
With Oracle, Larry Ellison is also one of a group of American investors set to take over the majority of popular video app TikTok’s US business. Ellison has cultivated a good relationship with US President Donald Trump, and the industry has questioned whether television channels in his growing media empire are threatened by interference with Trump-friendly content. For example, the president often complains about CNN’s reporting.
A “Nepo baby” and his journey to the top
Operational management of Paramount Skydance is in the hands of Larry’s son, David, who is CEO. He was interested in the entertainment business early on, and he tried his hand at acting for a while without much success. In 2010 he founded Skydance with financial help from his father.
He was initially not taken seriously in the industry and was seen as a kind of “Nepo baby” whose doors were opened by his father’s wealth. But gradually he gained respect and scored some box office success with Skydance. Since taking over Paramount, he has now become one of the most influential people in the media business.
DAZN Germany boss Alice Mascia has now said on the outcome of the allocation of rights to the Champions League: “Our decision reflects a disciplined long-term strategy aimed at offering the greatest possible added value to fans and partners.” This could be interpreted as an indication that the company does not want to pay as much as Paramount.
The Europa League and Conference League go to DAZN
DAZN is part of billionaire Len Blavatnik’s portfolio. Through his investment company, Access Industries, he has now invested more than seven billion dollars in DAZN since its launch, to which the service has aggressively purchased the rights and grown significantly in recent years. In Germany, DAZN has held the rights to live broadcast individual Bundesliga matches on Sundays since this season and shows the conference on Saturdays. The remaining rights belong to Sky, whose German business RTL wants to take over – the deal is currently being examined by antitrust authorities.
Sky does not currently show any European competitions, but RTL does run the Europa League and Conference League. For four seasons starting in the 2027/28 season, these rights will then be held by DAZN.
