Canal+ acquires UEFA club competitions for its new Austrian services

Vivendi-owned PayTV provider Canal Plus has secured a broad range of exclusive live rights to UEFA club soccer competitions in Austria. The new deal, which will run from 2024/25-2026/27, grants the broadcaster a line-up of top fixtures from the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and UEFA Europa Conference League.

Jacques du Puy

The games will be aired on the Canal Plus First channel as well as the company’s streaming platform in Austria. Current rights holders to the UEFA games are rival PayTV operator Sky Austria, and Red Bull-owned commercial network Servus TV.

Under the terms of the deal, Canal Plus will show the Champions League first-pick game played on Wednesday and the Europa League or Europa Conference League first-pick game in each match week. As an added bonus, it will be the only media platform in the country to broadcast the finals of all three UEFA club competitions.

The acquisition is a bold move by Canal Plus, which launched in Austria during March 2022 in cooperation with telco A1 Telekom. At the time it made no mention of its desire to expand into live sports rights. However the company is very familiar with broadcasting UEFA events. It currently has rights to UEFA club competitions across more than 50 countries, including its home territory France and key market Poland.

Jacques du Puy, CEO of Canal Plus International and deputy CEO of Canal Plus Group, said: “The acquisition of these rights is part of Canal Plus Group’s international development strategy and shows our commitment to drive the growth of our platforms with our partners in Austria. Our goal is to provide our customers with the best highlights and services, especially in terms of sports, movies, and series.”