Although I haven’t seen an official release from UEFA, there are lots of media reports saying that Paramount has won the rights to the Champions’ League (UCL) in the UK, for four years from 2027/28 bidding “well in excess” of the £1bn that TNT currently pays over the 2024/25-2026/27 three year cycle.

TNT Sports, previously called BT Sports, has held the UK Champions’ League rights since the 2015/16 season, at the time replacing Sky and ITV. You’ve got to think that UCL football is the mainstay of TNT Sports’ current offering, so this is a massive loss.

Paramount has so far picked up UK rights according to those reports (£), and is negotiating for other parts of Europe. Meanwhile, Amazon has retained its rights to a single first pick in the UK on Tuesdays, and first pick in Germany and Italy on Wednesdays.

In related news, Sky Sports reported that they had won rights to the UEFA Europa League and Conference League from 2027/28, inheriting those rights from TNT Sports.

There haven’t been any reports about whether highlights will continue on the BBC for the next round of fixtures, but I would note that Paramount owns the free-to-air Channel 5 which may prove part of its thinking.

UPDATE: The BBC has confirmed that is has renewed its agreement for highlights of the Champions’ League through until 2031.

There are a few layers to this, not least of which is that Paramount is one of three reported companies that are currently bidding for Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD), the parent company of… TNT Sports.

Paramount, run by David Ellison, has made a number of powerful moves in recent years. Ellison acquired Paramount and CBS forming Paramount Skydance back in the summer. The streaming service Paramount+ already had UCL TV rights in the US, with a presenting team whose virality – Kate Abdo, Jamie Carragher, Thierry Henry and Micah Richards – has been jealously regarded by other broadcasters. You can easily see that the same team would lead the UK coverage as well.

But Paramount also won the US TV rights to the UFC, paying an astronomical $7.7bn for seven years rights. The value of those rights has been questioned – and recent betting scandals probably aren’t helping. But the win was seen as important for Paramount+ as a show of strength under new owners.

Things haven’t gone entirely their way though. Taylor Sheridan, the man who’s somehow responsible for a large part of their drama output, has signed a deal with NBC Universal which starts in 2029 for TV (earlier for movies). He’s responsible for everything from the Yellowstone extended universe to Landman and Tulsa King.

Meanwhile, it seems like Paramount’s modus operandi in bidding for sports rights is to make big bold bids and knock out other competitors. The issue they will have in the UK is that they don’t have any other sports rights at all. However, were they to buy WBD, then they would of course take ownership of TNT Sports.

The other two reported bidders for WBD are Netflix and Comcast. The thing to know is that prior to being put on the chopping block, WBD was busily splitting itself into two. Broadly speaking, they were going to break apart HBO Max, their streaming service, along with Warner Bros. TV and movie studios, away from their channels business – Discovery Channel and all its sister stations.

The thinking was that the two parts were worth more than the whole. However, of the three bidders, only Paramount wants everything – the streamer and studio, and the channels. Netflix wants the streamer and the studio (thus gaining control of things like HBO), and the same is true of Comcast (owner of NBC Universal, and Sky in the UK). Comcast is separately also reportedly making a bid for the channels part of ITV.

Paramount would combine Paramount+ and HBO Max – the latter of which is due to launch in the UK next year – and of course it would lead to one fewer major studio in Hollywood. And as mentioned above, TNT Sports – both in the US and in the UK – would be included in that deal. It’s worth noting that the US TNT Sports has just been through a massive change too, having lost NBA rights for the first time in years. NBA was a major part of TNT’s offering – akin to TNT losing UCL in the UK.

If Paramount does not win WBD, then the picture for TNT Sports is not clear. Their rights package will be severely diminished. They have just one Premier League package, a large FA Cup deal and their rugby offering is also decent. Following their acquisition of Eurosport, they have lots of smaller sports like cycling, snooker and some tennis. They also have a massive Olympics deal, but that doesn’t really sustain a sports channel in the intervening years. They would have to cut prices to maintain viewers.

Sky winning the Europa and Conference League rights suggests that TNT didn’t either didn’t bid at all, or low-balled it on the basis nobody else would be interested. But Sky picked those up, and in one fell swoop, TNT lost all its European football.

That all said, if Paramount doesn’t win WBD, then they have a streaming service that is still underpowered, even with the jewel of UCL football. Is that enough on its own to get subscribers?

With Comcast and Netflix both said to be after the studio and streaming parts of WBD, its possible that the channels business, including TNT Sports in the UK, would be left for someone else, and perhaps Paramount might be interested in that alone?

But the whole WBD sale process may well drag on; there will be competition issues not just in the US, but also in the EU and UK which will need to be overcome.

Paramount could choose to make some its games available free-to-air on Channel 5, but I’m not sure that would be financially viable given their reported bid price. It definitely creates a shop window though. But its interesting that this will be the first time that UCL games will otherwise be exclusively available on streaming services. There won’t be any “broadcast” partners. (And your regular reminder that this introduces delays in the broadcast transmission chain which impacts on in-play betting).

We won’t really be able to tell the fallout of this award until the sale of WBD is finalised, but TNT Sports must be concerned.

[Gets back to watching an incredible opening day at The Ashes on, er, TNT Sports…]

Updated to include details of the BBC’s highlights renewal.