Amazon Prime has unveiled its Champions League coverage plans as the 2024-25 edition of Europe’s elite club competition draws closer.
The streaming platform, which already has the rights to broadcast Champions League football in Italy and Germany, signed a three-year deal with UEFA, European football’s governing body, in July 2022 to also broadcast one game per week in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
It is already a player in the UK sports broadcasting market, having had the rights to some Premier League fixtures for the past six years, although this is its final season screening England’s top flight under the current package of deals.
As the Champions League play-offs, the final qualifying round, begin tonight (Tuesday), with the draw for the league phase — which replaces the traditional group stage for the first time this season — taking place on Thursday, August 29, The Athletic breaks down what Amazon’s coverage will look like…
What has Amazon Prime announced?
At an event in London on Monday, Prime Video launched its planned coverage of this season’s Champions League.
It was over two years ago that UEFA sold its UK and Ireland Champions League rights to TNT Sports and Amazon Prime for a combined €1.7billion (£1.4bn; $1.9bn).
As part of its deal with UEFA, which incorporates the 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons, Prime Video has access to what it describes as Tuesday night’s “top-pick” match, up to and including the semi-finals. The expectation is that if an English club are playing in one of the Tuesday fixtures in a given round, then that is the one Prime Video is obliged to broadcast, as opposed to picking what could be perceived as a more glamorous tie elsewhere.
This season, the eight-groups-of-four first round that fans have been seeing in the Champions League for years is being replaced by a league-phase stage whereby each team plays eight games, split equally home and away, against different opponents, before every club is ranked in one combined table of 36. The top eight of that 36 qualify automatically for the round of 16 while the teams placed between ninth and 24th go into a first knockout round to decide the other eight spots.
Due to only having the rights to one game on a Tuesday, Prime Video will not broadcast any of the final round of phase matches, which are all taking place at the same time on a Wednesday night in late January.
Which commentators and pundits has Amazon signed up?
Gabby Logan, more commonly seen on the BBC’s coverage of a wide range of sports, will be anchoring the Champions League broadcasts, with former Netherlands international midfielder Clarence Seedorf, a four-time winner of the competition with Ajax, Real Madrid and AC Milan (twice) in the 1990s and 2000s, being part of the punditry team.
Gabby Logan will front Amazon’s Champions League coverage (John Phillips/Getty Images for Prime Video)
Former Liverpool and England striker Daniel Sturridge, ex-Chelsea player and manager and former England captain Frank Lampard, former Arsenal and Manchester City defender Gael Clichy, ex-Germany Women international Josie Henning and former France Women player Laura Georges are also in the punditry team, with other names set to be announced at a later stage.
Ex-Newcastle United and England striker Alan Shearer, a columnist at The Athletic, and Jon Champion will be the commentators, and Mark Clattenburg, a former Premier League referee turned unlikely star of the revived Gladiators TV game-show in the UK, signed up as referee analyst.
What does it think will separate its coverage from broadcasting rivals?
Following its acquisition of Sye, a streaming business, in 2020, Prime Video has been working towards broadcasting live events with low latency.
Latency is the term used to describe a time delay between, in a football context, what happens on the pitch and how long it takes for that moment to appear on your screen at home. The lower the latency, the better the viewing experience.
Amazon says its streaming technology will mean everyone — regardless of whether the match is being watched on a phone, a computer or a television — will see the action at the same time.
It says there will be no more than a 10-second delay, although this can depend on the technology being used by the viewer, with older TVs, for example, not having the required software to be under 10 seconds.
Amazon will also be using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to offer a recap of key moments, with AI generating highlights in real time. A substitute indicator to inform people how many of the permitted changes each team has remaining is also going to be used.
How much will it cost to watch the Champions League on Amazon Prime?
Amazon says there will be no additional cost to watch the Champions League via its platform for existing subscribers. A Prime subscription costs £8.99 a month.
It has also been announced that other Champions League fixtures will be available via the Prime Video App. Access to those additional games, however, will require a further subscription, to Discovery+ Premium, at £30.99 a month.
What else did it announce?
Away from the Champions League coverage, Amazon Prime revealed a documentary about Sir Kenny Dalglish, the former Liverpool player and manager, is in the works.
Dalglish, 73, appeared on stage at the event in London and spoke about the project, which is expected to be released in 2025, with filming already underway.
It is being directed by Asif Kapadia, the filmmaker behind previous sport-related works Maradona and Senna who also won an Academy Award in 2016 for his documentary feature Amy, about Amy Winehouse, a British singer and songwriter who died in July 2011 at age 27.
Amazon is making a feature film about Sir Kenny Dalglish (John Phillips/Getty Images for Prime Video)
Dalglish has already spent six hours chatting with Kapadia and outlined the approach he is taking to the film.
“Whatever he wants to do, whatever he thinks is feasible and what I think is acceptable (to discuss) will happen,” Dalglish said. “I’m really looking forward to it.”
Elsewhere, Amazon also unveiled the official trailer for Four Kings, a four-part documentary about British boxers Frank Bruno, Lennox Lewis, Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank Snr, who were all world champions in the 1990s, which is due to be released later this year.
(Top photo: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
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