ZDF will continue to show the most important European club competition on free TV. The timing and scope of the broadcasts have already been determined.
ZDF will also broadcast the Champions League final for the next three seasons. In a new rights agreement with European football’s governing body UEFA, the broadcaster has secured the live rights for the final. “We are delighted that we can continue to show our audience the UEFA Champions League final live, which will take place in Munich in 2025,” said ZDF sports director Yorck Polus in a statement.
In addition, the broadcaster will be offering detailed summaries of the most important matches of the week on Wednesday evenings starting on the first matchday with the “sportstudio Uefa Champions League”. “ZDF remains an important address for premier league football on free TV,” Polus continued. The linear re-use rights and the “clip” rights will always take effect on Wednesdays from 11 p.m.
The first broadcast of the new season will be on September 18th (11 p.m.) on ZDF. Before that, the draw for the league phase, which was introduced this season, can be seen on Thursday (6 p.m.) in a live stream on sportstudio.de and in the ZDFmediathek.
The broadcaster has held these rights for the past three seasons. From 2012 to 2018, ZDF showed one match of the Champions League per matchday before the broadcasts temporarily disappeared completely behind the paywall. Anyone who wants to see all the games of the 2024/25 season needs a subscription to the streaming services DAZN and Amazon Prime Video, which split the games on each matchday.