RTÉ Sport awarded first pick free-to-air on Wednesday nights
Champions League and Super Cup finals
Highlights on Wednesday nights
RTÉ today (Thursday 30 April) announced that it has successfully secured UEFA Champions League rights from 2027- 2031, with first pick live free-to-air matches on Wednesday nights plus the UEFA Champions League Final. The agreement also sees RTÉ secure rights to air the UEFA Super Cup Finals and Wednesday night highlights which will be broadcast on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
Group Head of RTÉ Sport, Declan McBennett said:”RTÉ is delighted to have retained the rights to the greatest club competition in the world. When you look at the allocation of rights across all the territories involved, very few have a free-to-air presence remaining and Ireland is one of those, and that’s critically important to us and to our audience.”
During the UEFA Champions League last season, the viewership on RTÉ2 for live matches was nearly 200,000 on average and was the 3rd most watched sporting competition on RTÉ Player in 2025 with a total of 1.4 million streams. UEFA Champions League is in the Top 10 most watched content on the RTÉ Player in 2026.
This new deal sees the UEFA Champions League sit alongside a comprehensive offering of live soccer broadcast rights for UEFA EURO 2028, the Republic of Ireland Men’s and Women’s National Teams, and the FAI Cup.
Also, this summer, June 11 sees the 2026 FIFA World Cup kick-off in USA, Mexico, and Canada featuring 48 teams with all 104 matches live and free-to-air on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
-ENDS-
Fergus McCormack, Communications Lead RTÉ
