Virgin Media Television has missed out on Uefa Champions League action in the bidding process for the Irish television rights to the next three seasons, amid inflation in the price. “We made a competitive bid that was slightly higher than last time for the packages we wanted,” said Virgin Media Television managing director Paul Farrell. The loss of Champions League will still be felt at Virgin, which used the matches to populate Virgin Media Sport as well as bring a big mid-week audience to its free-to-air channels. European football coverage from BT Sport, the UK rights holder, is also available to Irish viewers if they pay for BT Sport through Sky. BT has already been awarded the exclusive UK rights for the next three years, up to and including the 2023-24 season, with the company paying £1.2 billion (€1.4 billion) for Champions League and Europa League rights – a little more than it did in the previous auction.

Source: The Irish Times March 01, 2021 10:26 UTC