Paramount takeover of UK sport cools despite Champions League grab
Paramount Skydance has no plans to launch a UK sports channel after acquiring Champions League rights from 2027 onwards in an indication that a major expansion into sport from the global streaming platform is unlikely.
As it stands the Champions League is likely to be broadcast in this country on Paramount+, while the entertainment network could share programming with its US counterpart CBS, whose presentation team of Kate Abdo, Thierry Henry, Jamie Carragher and Micah Richards have attracted a global following.
Paramount/CBS has built up a considerable portfolio in the US, including all Uefa competitions, the Premier League, Serie A, three of the men’s golf Majors and Indian Premier League cricket, but rights experts have told Morning Wire that a major expansion in Europe is unlikely, not least due to the network’s huge investment in the Champions League.
It comes after Paramount Skydance made a bid to gazump Netflix in the bidding for Warner Bros Discovery by offering shareholders a deal worth $108bn (£81bn).
Paramount declined to comment, with sources saying it was too early to speculate on how the Champions League games will be delivered.
EFL’s Sky TV cash fears
EFL clubs are worried about a possible decline in the value of their domestic TV rights after broadcast partner, Sky Sports, committed to spending around £200m on exclusive rights for every Europa League and Conference League game for four years from 2027.
The EFL’s current contract is worth £935m over five years, but the broadcaster’s new deal with Uefa, sealed last month, has led to fears among clubs about whether Sky will remain prepared to invest at that level in the next rights cycle from 2029.
Any significant reduction in the value of the TV contract would have major ramifications for many clubs, most of which make annual losses. According to Deloitte’s 2025 Annual Review of Football Finance, Championship clubs averaged pre-tax losses of £17m in 2023-24, with average losses £5.2m in League One and £2.3m in League Two.
TV rights valuations are generally flat or falling across Europe, with the exception of the Champions League, whose UK deal increased by around 20 per cent when Paramount+ paid £2.2bn for a four-year contract from 2027 last month.
Even the Premier League deal has dropped in value on a per-game basis over its current four-year cycle to 2029, with the clubs securing a four per cent rise by selling 100 more games each season to Sky Sports.
The EFL succeeded in gaining a 50 per cent increase in its UK TV rights from Sky when agreeing a five-year deal from 2024 to 2029, which also includes the Carabao Cup and EFL Trophy.
Much of the growth was also down to the EFL massively increasing the number of games on offer to 1059 each season, and there are concerns that Sky’s appetite for buying even more matches may be reduced following their purchase of 342 Uefa games, which will take their total offering to 1616 matches from the Premier League, EFL and Europe from 2027.
The future of the Carabao Cup, which contributes around one-third of the value of the current EFL deal, is also uncertain due to the continued expansion of European competitions.
The EFL’s commercial team has consistently succeeded in growing the value of their TV deals both domestically and overseas over the past decade and remain relatively relaxed about the situation, but the timing of the next rights negotiations may also be against them.
With the Premier League’s domestic deal also expiring in 2029 the EFL would ordinarily go to market at the same time, but as broadcasters are expected to prioritise the top flight they may have to wait until that sales process has concluded.
The current five-year deal was negotiated in advance of the Premier League’s as it started 12 months earlier and was particularly attractive to Sky, as the extra matches enabled it to trial its new multi-game streaming service Sky Sports+, which has been rolled out for Premier League games on Sunday afternoons this season.
Arsenal handed plum draw
Arsenal will have home advantage in their attempt to become the first women’s World Champions next month.
Fifa is yet to announce venues for the new Champions Cup beyond confirming that it will take place in London, but Morning Wire has learned that the semi-finals will be held at Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium and the final at the Emirates.
Fifa’s decision to give Arsenal home advantage for the final may raise questions about the integrity of the Champions Cup. In another potential integrity issue, it has emerged that Fifa did not conduct a draw for the tournament, which appears to have been set up so that Arsenal meet the NWSL or Concacaf champions in the final.
Arsenal will face the winners of a play-off between Chinese club Wuhan Jiangda and Moroccan side AS Far at Brentford in the first semi-final. The second semi-final is between Gotham FC and Copa Libertadores holders Corinthians.
Middlesex privatisation delayed
Middlesex’s proposal to take the club into private ownership will not be put to a vote until 2027, with the board planning to spend most of next season conducting a charm offensive on the members to vote in favour.
To demutualise, Middlesex need 50 per cent of their 5,500 voting members to turn out, with a 75 per cent majority in favour, which chairman Richard Sykes described last week as “a challenge, both logistically and emotionally”.
Middlesex have opted to take the club private after their proposal to set up a joint venture with American investors, 3SX, was rejected by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), who warned that pursuing such a course would lead to a withdrawal of the central funding that is keeping them afloat.
The club are seeking external funds to help finance the building of a new ground away from Lord’s, with Uxbridge their preferred site.
Middlesex intend to stay at Lord’s, but competition for the ground from the growth of women’s cricket and The Hundred has led to them being squeezed out, with Morning Wire revealing last month that just two of their six T20 Blast home games will be staged in St John’s Wood next summer.