Sublicense agreement between Telewizja Polska and Canal+ Polska relating to the Champions League applies to the start of the 2024/25 season. – We will start from the first round of the championship phase, going through a new play-off round, the knockout phase, until the grand final. In total, TVP will show 17 matches throughout the season UEFA Champions League. Broadcasts will take place on Wednesday evenings at 9pm, announced Jakub Kwiatowski, TVP’s sports director, on the X platform.
Public Television will also show highlights of all Champions League games. It was not disclosed how much was paid for the sublicense.
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– We are extremely proud to be able to offer Polish viewers free access to prestigious competitions such as the UEFA Champions League. This is a great enrichment of our programming offer and guarantees unforgettable emotions – emphasized Tomasz Sygut, General Director of Telewizja Polska in the announcement.
In the new season The Champions League first phase play-off system is changing: instead of groups, there will be a league with all 36 teams. In the championship phase, each team will play eight matches (four home and four away), each against a different opponent. Opponents will be selected by drawing lots.
The top eight teams from the group stage will advance directly to the round of 16, while those from positions 9 to 24 will play for promotion in the play-offs. From the round of 16 onwards, the classic cup system will apply: match and rematch. The final of the inaugural season of the Champions League will be played on May 31, 2025 in Munich.
The Champions League returns to TVP
Canal+ has acquired the rights to the Champions League for the next three seasons. An agreement has already been reached to include stations with these broadcasts, among others, with cable networks Vectra and Toya. In order to show these games, the broadcaster has launched four additional channels.
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For years, Polish television was able to broadcast one of Wednesday’s Champions League games and highlights from all of them under a sublicense. This cooperation ended in the middle of last year, when the contract with Telewizja Polsat, which had shown the Champions League for the past six seasons, expired.
Selected matches of the Polish Ekstraklasa, broadcast under the Canal+ license, have also disappeared from TVP’s antennas. – The bidder made an exaggerated offer. It’s not about whether or not the Ekstraklasa is worth it. I would really like to have it on Polish television – Mateusz Matyszkowicz, then president of the public broadcaster, explained to the Wirtualnemedia.pl portal in August last year.
Selected Ekstraklasa matches are also on TVP
In the case of the Ekstraklasa, cooperation was resumed in July this year: Telewizja Polska signed a contract with Canal+ for three seasons, being able to broadcast one game from each round (on Saturday or Sunday at 5:30 pm) and highlights from the remaining ones.
More than a week ago, Tomasz Sygut emphasized in an interview with Gazeta Wyborcza that this was the result of difficult negotiations. – Only thanks to this policy we managed, among other things: to acquire a sub-license for the Polish Ekstraklasa. I hope that the Champions League will also return to TVP soon, – he said. – As a result, we will have a phenomenal sports offer. For me, this is the mission of public television and an element of the fight against exclusion. Not everyone can afford several paid sports platforms, – Sygut noted.
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At the beginning of the current season, TVP began broadcasting matches of the 1st League, 2nd League and the Polish Cup Fortuna. According to the agreement signed last autumn, together with the Polish Football Association, it also has the right to show the Orlen Ekstraliga and the final of the Polish Cup Orlen for women’s football players, as well as matches of the Polish women’s national team, the men’s youth team and the national futsal team. The contract will be valid for three seasons. Previously, for many years, Fortuna 1. The Polish League and the Polish Cup were shown by Polsat Sport.
