Sources: Turner Picks Up UEFA Champions League Rights In '18

Sources said that Turner Sports has "picked up the U.S. English-language media rights to the UEFA Champions League" starting in fall '18. Turner, which has not carried soccer programming of any kind for at least 27 years, was a "surprise bidder and aggressively committed" more than $60M per year as part of a three-year deal that runs through the spring of '21, "largely taking over a package that Fox Sports has held for nine years." Turner will be "joined by Univision, which agreed to pay" around $35M per year for the Spanish-language rights, giving UEFA a haul of close to $100M per year for the U.S. rights (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 2/27 issue).