Pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus Polska has acquired exclusive rights to the Uefa Champions League from 2024-25 to 2026-27, strengthening its hold on club football broadcasting in Poland.
The deal also includes the Uefa Super Cup and Uefa Youth League.
Commercial and pay-television broadcaster Polsat holds Champions League rights during the current 2021-24 cycle.
From next season, the Champions League will complement Canal Plus’ domestic rights to the top-flight Ektraklasa from 2023-24 to 2026-27.
In January, Team Marketing, Uefa’s exclusive global sales agent for its men’s club competition rights (excluding the US), set broadcasters in Poland a first-round bid deadline of February 27.
As is standard in its international rights sales, Team sent out two concurrent invitations to submit offers for the 2024-25 to 2026-27 cycle. One covered the Champions League, new Champions League ‘opening tournament’ and the Youth League, while the other comprised rights to the Europa League, Conference League and new Europa Super Cup.
Edyta Sadowska, president and chief executive of Canal Plus Poland, said: “Sport has been in Canal Plus’ DNA for almost 30 years, and we make sure to offer our Polish viewers the best sporting events and unforgettable emotions. The Uefa Champions League is the best evidence of this, and we are therefore honoured to announce this news to all fans who have been waiting for the return of the greatest European football to Canal Plus.”
The group states that it has three million subscribers in Poland.
Viaplay ousted Polsat as the Europa League and Europa Conference League rights-holder in Poland to add to its portfolio upon launch in the country in 2021. However, the subscription streaming broadcaster is set to exit Poland after racking up significant international losses.
TVP failed in its bid to negotiate a Champions League sublicensing agreement with Polsat ahead of this season’s group stage. The public broadcaster had regularly aired a Wednesday match from Europe’s elite clubs competition on free-to-air television along with highlights from Tuesday and Wednesday matches. TVP’s most recent sublicensing deal with Polsat covered the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons.
Earlier this month, Canal Plus renewed its exclusive rights to the PGE Ekstraliga, Poland’s top speedway league, until at least the end of 2028. The new agreement with Speedway Ekstraliga covers the 2026 to 2028 seasons of the PGE Ekstraliga as well as the 2025 to 2027 seasons of the second-tier Metalkas 2 Ekstraliga.
Last month, Canal Plus sealed a sublicensing deal with TVP to put matches from the Ekstraklasa back on free-to-air television in the country. The deal was for live rights to 15 matches during the remainder of the 2023-24 campaign.
The Uefa club competitions media rights sales process was issued in neighbouring Ukraine at the start of this week. Also this week, SportBusiness exclusively reported that the Vietcontent agency has acquired broadcast rights to Uefa club competitions in Vietnam from 2024-25 to 2026-27.