DAZN close to ITV deal for Women’s Champions League final

DAZN is reportedly close to cutting a deal with ITV to broadcast the UEFA Women’s Champions League final.

According to a report from The Telegraph, DAZN is in talks with the UK pubcaster to sublicence the final between Barcelona and Lyon on May 21.

DAZN is currently at the end of year one of a four year deal to broadcast the competition, having shown all matches for free on YouTube in a landmark deal for the sport. The deal marks the first time that UEFA has centralised all Women’s Champions League matches globally.

Despite the final being broadcast on YouTube, DAZN is said to want increased exposure for the competition and views ITV as the perfect partner for this.

It remains unclear whether the match would be broadcast on the main ITV channel, on one of its sister networks or streamed on ITV Hub.

So far, DAZN’s YouTube move has proved a roaring success. Across 60 matches so far, the broadcaster has recorded 55.9 million views worldwide while the semi-final between Barcelona and Real Madrid peaked at 1.8 million live viewers.

Elsewhere, BT Sport has confirmed that it will once again stream the men’s Champions League final for free on YouTube, along with the finals of the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Conference League. 

Jamie Hindhaugh, head of BT Sport, said: “It has been another hugely entertaining season of football across all three Uefa club competitions, highlighted by British clubs making two of the finals once again. We’re delighted to round these European campaigns off by making the live action from all three finals available for anyone to watch for free on the BT Sport website, app or YouTube channel.”