Viaplay Group this week announce it has extended its exclusive rights to the men's UEFA Champions League in Denmark, and its exclusive rights to the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League in Norway and Finland, for four years running from the Fall of 2027 through 2031. The deal, announced on April 30, 2026, locks in the Nordic broadcaster's position across three of the five countries where it operates, covering the three major UEFA club competitions below the level of the national teams.

The extension covers a defined window: four seasons beginning in the autumn of 2027, the point at which the current rights cycle expires. According to the announcement, Viaplay Group will remain the exclusive broadcaster of all three competitions in the respective markets for the full duration of that period. The deal does not cover Iceland or Sweden, which are separate markets where different rights arrangements apply.

What the deal actually covers

The structure of the agreement is worth unpacking carefully, because it differs by country. In Denmark, Viaplay holds exclusive rights specifically to the UEFA Champions League - the premium tier of European club competition. In Norway and Finland, the agreement covers the two lower-tier UEFA club competitions: the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Conference League. These are distinct rights packages, negotiated under a single announcement but covering different competitions in different territories.

According to Viaplay Group, the Champions League rights in Denmark carry a particular historical significance. The company states it is the only broadcaster in the world to have shown every match from the UEFA Champions League since the tournament began in 1992, when it replaced the old European Cup format. That is an unbroken run of over three decades of coverage, and the new deal extends that streak through at least 2031 - a run of nearly 40 years should the claim hold through the full extension.

The Norway and Finland situation is different in character. There, Viaplay does not hold Champions League rights, but it does hold the Europa League and Conference League. The Conference League is the youngest of the three competitions, having launched in the 2021-22 season. It sits below the Europa League in UEFA's hierarchy and was designed in part to give clubs from smaller European leagues - including Nordic nations - a realistic route into continental competition. That structural point matters for the local audience argument Viaplay makes.

Format changes and the league phase

The UEFA Champions League underwent a significant structural overhaul for the 2024-25 season. The traditional group stage, which had run since 1991-92 and involved eight groups of four clubs, was replaced by a new "league phase" format. Under the new structure, 36 clubs - expanded from 32 - compete in a single league table. Each club plays eight matches against eight different opponents, rather than the six matches against three opponents that the group stage produced. The top eight clubs in the table advance automatically to the knockout round of 16, while clubs finishing ninth through 24th enter a play-off round for the remaining eight spots.

The practical result is more matches per club in the autumn phase of the competition, and a longer broadcast schedule extending into early spring before the knockout rounds resolve. Peter Norrelund, Viaplay Group EVP and Chief Sports and Business Development Officer, referenced this change directly in the announcement. According to Norrelund, "The UEFA Champions League has always been relevant to our sports offer in Denmark, and the new extended format with the league phase in the Fall has brought even more excitement to the competition."

This is a commercially relevant observation. More matches in the group - now league - phase means more broadcast hours to fill and more advertising inventory. A 36-team field producing 189 matches in the league phase, compared to 96 in the old group stage, represents a substantially larger volume of live content. For a broadcaster whose revenue depends on subscription retention and, increasingly, advertising, the expanded format increases the volume of high-value live sports hours available per season.

The Norway and Finland angle

In Norway and Finland, Viaplay's continued hold on the Europa League and Conference League carries a different kind of local logic. Norrelund noted that "the local teams participating in the Europa and Conference Leagues will add local flavour to our strong portfolio of football rights." This is a reference to the fact that clubs from Norway and Finland regularly qualify for these competitions, making the broadcasts directly relevant to fans following domestic clubs in European matches rather than just watching foreign clubs.

Norwegian clubs such as Bodo/Glimt and Molde have been consistent Europa League and Conference League participants in recent seasons. Finnish clubs including HJK Helsinki have similarly appeared at the Conference League level. When a domestic club progresses through UEFA competition, viewership typically spikes sharply for those specific fixtures. Holding the rights to the competition that domestic clubs are actually playing in has a measurable audience value that Champions League rights - where Nordic clubs rarely appear - do not fully replicate.

Where this fits in Viaplay's broader sports rights strategy

The UEFA extension does not stand alone. According to Viaplay Group, its premium sports portfolio includes the English Premier League, Swedish national team football, Danish Superliga, Formula 1, NHL ice hockey, EHF handball, and golf majors, among other properties. That portfolio has been assembled through a sustained rights acquisition strategy across multiple disciplines.

Earlier in 2026, Viaplay secured all broadcast rights to the EFL Championship across every Nordic market through 2028, adding the second tier of English football to its existing coverage of the Premier League, FA Cup, and Carabao Cup. That deal covered all Championship matches live, including the Play-Off Semi-Finals and the Wembley final. The combined effect is that English football from the Championship upward is exclusively on Viaplay across the Nordic region.

In July 2025, Viaplay acquired Telenor's remaining 50% stake in Allente Group for SEK 1.1 billion, transforming from co-owner to sole proprietor of the satellite television provider that serves Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Allente generated SEK 6.5 billion in revenues during 2024. The acquisition gave Viaplay full control over a distribution infrastructure that reaches a substantial portion of Nordic households through satellite, complementing its streaming platform.

Also in July 2025, Titan OS announced that all 2025 Philips TVs would feature a dedicated Viaplay-branded hotkey on their remote controls, covering the Nordics and the Netherlands. Hardware-level integration of this kind reduces the friction between a viewer and a streaming platform at the moment they turn on the television.

The competitive context

Viaplay is not the only streaming operator investing heavily in UEFA Champions League rights. Amazon's Prime Video secured an extension of its Champions League rights in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy through 2031, announced on November 21, 2025. That deal, covering four years from 2027 to 2031, mirrors the duration of Viaplay's Nordic extension precisely. In the UK, Prime Video broadcasts the best Tuesday match each week; in Germany and Italy, it carries the top Wednesday game. Amazon reported 13 million viewers for its debut Champions League season in the UK alone.

The parallel structure - both deals running 2027-2031 - is not coincidental. It reflects how UEFA has structured its current rights cycle and the timing of its negotiations with broadcasters across different markets. Rights holders are largely working within the same contractual window.

What distinguishes Viaplay's position in Denmark specifically is the continuity claim. Whereas Amazon entered Champions League broadcasting relatively recently, Viaplay's Danish coverage traces back to 1992. Maintaining that record through 2031 would mean the competition has never aired on another broadcaster in Denmark across what will be four decades.

Jørgen Madsen Lindemann's framing

Jørgen Madsen Lindemann, Viaplay Group President and CEO, described the deal in terms of the length of the overall partnership with UEFA. According to Lindemann, "We are very pleased to have extended our partnership with UEFA to almost 40 years with this four year prolongation. We continue to secure the content that is relevant for our viewers and, at the same time, provides proven commercial potential. That is the case with the rights that we have now extended, so this is a good day."

The phrase "proven commercial potential" is notable. It frames the rights not solely as a subscriber acquisition tool - a common justification for expensive sports rights - but as a property with documented returns. The Champions League in Denmark is presumably not priced the same as Champions League rights in France or Germany, but for a mid-sized Nordic streaming market, the commercial case appears to be established through three-plus decades of data.

What it means for advertising and the marketing community

Live premium sports remain among the most valuable inventory categories in the connected television advertising market. As noted in PPC Land's coverage of programmatic live sports advertising developments, live sports activity more than tripled in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. Exclusive rights to UEFA competitions give Viaplay a concentrated block of premium live sports inventory that cannot be bought on competing platforms in the relevant markets.

The expansion of the Champions League to 36 clubs and 189 league-phase matches per season further increases the addressable inventory. For advertisers targeting sports-engaged audiences in Denmark, Norway, or Finland through connected television, the Viaplay platform is - by design of the exclusive rights structure - the only place to reach viewers of these particular competitions.

Viaplay's acquisition of Allente adds satellite distribution to that picture, meaning the UEFA rights now reach audiences across streaming and traditional satellite delivery, broadening the potential audience base without fragmenting the exclusivity.

The deal also fits within a broader European pattern of streaming platforms consolidating multi-year sports rights to anchor subscription propositions. Prime Video's extension of its Champions League rights to 2031 follows the same logic in larger markets. The difference in Viaplay's case is that it operates in smaller, linguistically distinct markets where the English Premier League, the Champions League, and Formula 1 are the primary sports content anchors for a subscriber base that has limited domestic alternatives of equivalent scale.

Technical and rights structure notes

The current Champions League format, now in its second season under the league-phase structure in 2025-26, runs from late August through late May, with the league phase concentrated between September and January. The knockout stages begin in February. A broadcaster holding Champions League rights in a given market must therefore produce or acquire coverage across nine months of the sporting calendar, with the highest-stakes fixtures arriving in the spring.

The Europa League and Conference League follow similar calendars but at slightly lower commercial intensity. All three competitions conclude in May with the final held at pre-selected neutral venues. UEFA announced several years ago its plans for final locations through the mid-2020s and beyond, confirming long-term stability in the competition structure.

According to Viaplay Group, the new rights window begins in the Fall of 2027. This implies the current rights cycle runs through the end of the 2026-27 season - meaning spring 2027 - and the new agreement kicks in from the 2027-28 season. The deal runs four seasons, through the 2030-31 season, with the finals in May 2031 marking the conclusion.

Timeline

  • 1992 - UEFA Champions League begins; Viaplay (then under a predecessor brand) starts broadcasting all matches in Denmark, beginning an unbroken run of exclusive coverage.
  • 2021-22 - UEFA Conference League launches as the third tier of European club competition, with Viaplay holding rights in Norway and Finland.
  • February 20, 2026 - Viaplay Group secures all EFL Championship broadcast rights across every Nordic market through 2028.
  • April 30, 2026 - Viaplay Group announces a four-year extension of its exclusive UEFA Champions League rights in Denmark, and UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League rights in Norway and Finland, covering Fall 2027 through 2031.

Summary

Who: Viaplay Group, the Nordic region's leading entertainment provider listed on Nasdaq Stockholm under the ticker VPLAY B, in partnership with UEFA.

What: Viaplay Group has extended its exclusive rights to the men's UEFA Champions League in Denmark, and the exclusive rights to the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League in Norway and Finland, for four years. The announcement was made by Jørgen Madsen Lindemann, President and CEO, and Peter Norrelund, EVP and Chief Sports and Business Development Officer.

When: The announcement was made on April 30, 2026. The new rights period begins in the Fall of 2027 and runs through the 2030-31 season.

Where: The rights cover three Nordic markets: Denmark (Champions League), Norway (Europa League and Conference League), and Finland (Europa League and Conference League). Viaplay's Viaplay streaming service is available across all Nordic countries and in the Netherlands.

Why: The extension secures content that Viaplay describes as having "proven commercial potential," maintaining its unbroken record of Champions League broadcasting in Denmark since 1992 and preserving exclusive access to UEFA club competitions in two further markets where domestic clubs regularly compete.

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