Channel 5 to show Club World Cup in UK after deal with Dazn
Channel 5 will broadcast live more than a third of the matches including the final at this summer’s Club World Cup after striking a sublicensing deal with Dazn.
The broadcaster, which is owned by US media giant Paramount, has agreed to take 23 of the 63 matches at the first 32-team edition of Fifa’s ambitious revamped tournament.
They include 15 group games, four last-16 ties, two quarter-finals, a semi-final and the final, which could feature Manchester City and Chelsea.
Sports streaming platform Dazn, which bought the global rights to the Club World Cup for $1bn late last year, will show all fixtures for free on its app.
“We’re delighted to be able to have agreed this fantastic partnership with Dazn to expand free-to-air coverage of the Fifa Club World Cup, live on 5,” Lee Sears, Paramount’s president of international ad sales, told the Guardian.
“It’s going to be one of the sporting events of the summer with most of the matches played in the evening peak time and 32 of the world’s biggest clubs involved.”
Channel 5 is reported to have beaten Channel 4 to the deal, giving it perhaps its most high-profile sport rights yet.
Other teams to have qualified for the Club World Cup include Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Flamengo, Boca Juniors and Al Hilal.
Inter Miami, who are co-owned by David Beckham and boast Lionel Messi, are also involved in the tournament, which will run from June to July.
CityAM revealed last month that Dazn was in talks to sublicense its Club World Cup rights in the UK. “We’re looking at it at the moment, to try and reach more people,” said Pete Oliver, the platform’s CEO of Growth Markets.
The BBC and ITV opted to focus instead on the Women’s Euros, which is scheduled for July, but Channel 4 is believed to have been interested.