September 8 – With the UEFA Champions League kicking off tonight, Nielsen Sports has released new data showing that the 2025/26 audience reached 1.9 billion worldwide.
This is the highest overall reach since 2017/18, when UCL had the most live broadcast deals.
Nielsen Sports says the numbers have driven a 30% to 40% increase in Quality Index (QI) sponsor media value from season to season. The current average sponsorship deal is more than $50 million a year, but Nielsen says that moving into the new rights cycle at the end of this season, “the average deal size is expected to increase significantly.”
Broadcast data relates to live match consumption, but there has also been a significant increase in social media content with total engagements exceeding 1.51 billion.
Nielsen said this is “sponsor-related content published by UCL, participating clubs, players and major sports media”.
The brand’s presence on the official TikTok and Instagram channels of the Champions League delivered an average post average IQ value of almost €85,000, Nielsen said.
Andy Milnes, market leader for Sports, UK and Ireland at Nielsen Sports, said: “The UEFA Champions League continues to be the benchmark for global sports properties, with a fan base of more than 860 million rivals any league in the world. Reaching an audience of 1.9 billion last season demonstrates the huge appetite for live European football.”
This season will be the third in the reformatted UCL which saw the traditional group stage swapped for a new league structure qualifying 24 of the 36 teams for the knockout rounds.
This is the final season of the current UCL business cycle which will see some major strategic changes from the start of the 2027/28 season.
These include some major new sponsors with AB InBev already on board to take over Heineken’s 30-year beer sponsorship; a more flexible approach to the length of transactions, moving away from the traditional three-year renewal cycle where applicable; and a bundling of the UCL with the Europa League and Conference League.
“As we look to the 2027/28 business cycle with Relevent, the transition to multi-tiered package bundling and flexible contract lengths represents a modernized approach to sports sponsorship. Brands are moving beyond traditional three-year terms to create bespoke, long-term lineups that deliver measurable returns across live broadcast and digital platforms,” said Milne.
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