Good news for football lovers. As has just been announced, DTT will be the place where we will have the opportunity to watch the Champions League final without having to pay anything. In this way, the most intense match in the Champions League will be seen live for three more years.
UEFA was in the process of auctioning the broadcasting rights for the Champions League and, once again, as mentioned in El Mundo, RTVE has emerged the winner in Spain. It has done so by obtaining the corresponding permits to be able to broadcast the finals of the next three editions. Thus, both in 2025 and 2026 and in 2027, RTVE will be responsible for broadcasting the final.
The Champions League final remains on DTT
Taking into account the enormous audience figures that the last Champions League final accumulated on La 1, it was obvious that RTVE would do everything possible to end up keeping the rights for more years. The auction has given them as winners a total of 7.5 million euros, a total investment that is divided at a rate of 2.5 million euros for each of the matches. Meanwhile, as usual, the rights to the competition, as well as other important football tournaments, are in the hands of Movistar Plus+. Although the operator has the ability to negotiate the rights, what is now definitive is that the final will be seen on DTT.
In addition to being a logical decision due to the audience that the last final accumulated and how well the broadcast has done since its return to DTT years ago, there is another reason for the acquisition of the rights. This is RTVE’s objective of transforming public television into a quality platform that can compete face to face with private services. With these three finals, RTVE will be able to maintain the momentum that football provides with the broadcast of this match and the finals of other UEFA competitions, such as the UEFA Europa League.
A risky bet
What cannot be denied is that RTVE’s movement has a certain risk. Although it is true that acquiring the rights to the finals is a very obvious decision, it is also true that the results of the bet can go well or they can go wrong. The reason for this is that, logically, it is not known which teams will reach the final of the competition. If at least one of them is a Spanish group, the audience will surely reach high levels. But if no team in our league ends up qualifying for the final match, interest in the outcome of the Champions League will be less.
In 2022, which kicked off the return of the Champions League to DTT, the match was played between Liverpool and Real Madrid. In that final, the Madrid team won. And, as you can imagine, the audience reached really high numbers. The number of viewers surpassed previous records, it became the most watched and resulted in an average of more than 7 million people watching the match. In 2023, luck did not smile on public television, given that the final pitted Manchester City FC, who emerged victorious, against FC Internazionale. But, in 2024, the Champions League was once again led by Real Madrid and the audience responded as expected.
Next year, 2025, it is expected that the final will once again be of general interest, but it remains to be seen which teams will compete in it. The Spanish teams have possibilities, although the results may lack a little consistency. However, RTVE may be crossing their fingers cheering for the national teams that are in the competition. Whatever teams play, the good news is that the Champions League final will be seen again on DTT and on the RTVE Play platform.
