Bayern Munich's Harry Kane and Raphael Guerreiro carbo-load ahead of the 2024/25 Champions League season. Photo / Getty Images
Bayern Munich's Harry Kane and Raphael Guerreiro carbo-load ahead of the 2024/25 Champions League season. Photo / Getty Images
European football has its third home in New Zealand in as many years, with global streaming player DAZN bagging local rights to Uefa club competitions – including the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League from the 2024/25 season through to 2026/27.
The streaming service is charging $14.99per month or $149.99 for an annual pass.
Its coverage will kick off at 7am tomorrow with the Uefa Super Club clash between last year’s Champions League winners Real Madrid and Europa League winners Atalanta. The match will be offered free as a taster.
Spark Sport had Uefa club competition rights but did not include them as it transferred most of its portfolio to TVNZ (the state broadcaster did pick up Uefa’s inter-country Euro competition).
Instead, the telco sold Uefa club rights to beIN Sport NZ on a one-year sub-licence.
DAZN takes the pitch
Now the UK-based DAZN – which launched in NZ in 2020, initially focussing on boxing but now also offering passes to the likes of the NFL and PGA passes – has emerged as the new exclusive rights holder.
“We are on all platforms including Apple TV and all major smart TVs, game consoles, streaming sticks, mobile and tablets,” Pete Oliver, CEO of growth markets at DAZN told the Herald.
Streaming will be in 1080p HD.
Inter Milan's Hakan Calhanoglu of FC Internazionale Milano body-tackles Manchester City's Erling Haaland of Manchester City during the 2023 Uefa Champions League Final. Photo / Getty Images
“We are a large global sports platform,” Oliver said. “In Europe, we have Serie A in Italy, La Liga in Spain, Bundesliga and Champions League in Germany, League 1 in France, plus NFL Game Pass globally and many other sports so the app is proven at scale.”
In January, DAZN said it had “60 million registered premium users and 300 million monthly customers.”
DAZN becomes the third Uefa club competition rights holder for NZ in three years after Spark Sport and beIN.
In markets, such as its alliance with Sky Italia, the streamer partners with a pay-TV broadcaster, just as beIN partnered with Sky NZ for a spell.
In here, there are “No current partnership plans. Everything will be exclusive to the DAZN app,” Oliver said.
“But we never rule out partnerships in the future.”
Bring your wallet off the bench
A more complicated-than-ever landscape will see Kiwi fans of European football needing to subscribe to Sky TV or Sky Sport Now ($49.99 per month or $499.99 per year) for English Premier League and FA Cup action, beIN Sport NZ ($14.99 per month or $179.88 per year) for English Championship or Carabao Cup matches and DANZ for Uefa’s three tiers of club competitions for the 2024/25 season.
This author also had to pay £45 ($96) to join Tottenham Hotspur’s club channel to watch the two pre-season friendlies against Bayern Munich.
Champions League revamp
With the 2024/25 season, the Champions League is undergoing a radical makeover – with an expansion to 36 teams and pool games replaced by a “Swiss Model”. All teams will play in a single league, each playing eight fixtures (four at home and four away) against two teams from four pots. Each of the pots will be seeded. The top eight at the end of the league phase will be straight through to the last 16, with those between ninth and 24th facing an additional two-legged play-off.
The pots for the league round, which kicks off September 18 NZT:
Pot One: Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, PSG, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Barcelona
Pot Two: Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid, Atalanta, Juventus, Benfica, Arsenal, Club Brugge, Shakhtar Donetsk, AC Milan
Pot Three: Feyenoord, Sporting CP, PSV, Lille*, PAOK*, Young Boys*, Celtic, Galatasaray*, Union Saint-Gilloise*
Pot Four: Midtylland*, AS Monaco, Sparta Prague*, Aston Villa, Bologna, Girona, Stuttgart, Sturm Graz, Stade Brestois
The Europa and Conference leagues are undergoing similar changes.
The Europa League will feature Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United from the Premier League, while Chelsea will make the Conference League if they win a two-legged play-off (on Aug 22 and 29) against either Servette or Braga.
* These clubs are favourites to progress from their play-offs, but they are yet to qualify. The lineups will be finalised on August 31
Mighty Ape managing director Robert McEwan talks to the Herald's Chris Keall about an error that saw users logged into each other's accounts. Video / Dean Purcell
