Eurosport to air Champions League in UK, Europe

Eurosport has signed an exclusive three-year deal with ESPN STAR Sports to broadcast the Champions League Twenty20 tournament in the United Kingdom and across Europe.

The deal includes the rights to broadcast the tournament online, with featured matches appearing on the Eurosport Player, the channel's online subscription player service. The tournament will also be available on mobile devices in the UK, so fans with iPhones and iPads will be able to watch the games on the move using the Eurosport Player application.

"We are very pleased to have such an enthusiastic partner in the Eurosport Group, especially with their innovative efforts to showcase this event online in addition to broadcasting it on-air," Manu Sawhney, ESPN STAR Sports' managing director said. ESPN STAR holds the commercial rights to the the Champions League through 2018 and is also the tournament's global television production partner.

The tournament will be broadcast on British Eurosport in the UK and Eurosport 2 in the rest of Europe, according to Arnaud Simon, broadcast director of Eurosport and Eurosport 2. "We are confident that Eurosport's top-notch pan-European coverage will attract new enthusiasts to the already popular tournament," he said.

The 2010 Champions League tournament will be played in South Africa from September 10 to September 26, and will feature the the top T20 teams from India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies. The 2009 champions were the New South Wales Blues, who failed to qualify for this year's event.