• Sky Sports chief Barney France fired a shot in the latest battle with BT Sport
• BT Sport are launching £897m coverage of the Champions League next season
• But Francis argued that the package is not as valuable as it seems
• Champions League coverage accounted for 2.5 per cent of Sky viewing 

By

Charles Sale for the Daily Mail

Published:
21:31 GMT, 8 June 2015

|
Updated:
23:50 GMT, 8 June 2015

Sky Sports chief Barney Francis fired the opening shot in the latest battle with BT Sport by claiming that viewers’ interest in Europe’s flagship Champions League is on a rapid slide.

Francis chose the eve of BT’s launch of their European coverage next season to make his provocative comments.

Writing in his blog, Francis argued that the Champions League — which BT snatched from Sky and ITV by paying £897million for live coverage over three seasons — was not the valuable asset it once was. He said it accounted for just 2.5 per cent of Sky Sports’ viewing figures and claimed the Barclays Premier League was ‘seven times bigger’.

Sky Sports chief Barney Francis claimed interest in the Champions League is on a rapid slide of late

Lionel Messi kisses the Champions League trophy after Barcelona won in front of millions

Jose Mourinho helped to launch BT Sport’s new television coverage but Sky say it is not too valuable

Sky say their Champions League final coverage produced disappointing figures, but it was popular on ITV

Francis said: ‘Over the last five seasons we have seen Champions League audiences fall 38 per cent. Last season we saw our lowest ever average match audience and not a single European game appeared in our top 40 football matches.

‘In football, it’s the intense rivalry of our domestic competitions that matters most to customers. You only have to look at the viewing figures to see the evidence.’

Sky’s armchair ratings for last Saturday’s Champions League final between Barcelona and Juventus was a paltry average of 497,000, well down on last year.

But in contrast, Barcelona’s exciting 3-1 victory had an average audience of 5.3million on ITV, which was 400,000 up on their 2014 Champions League final ratings.

BT Sport will be quick to point out that they have paid approaching £1billion for exclusive live content — which Sky never had during their years of broadcasting the tournament as they shared coverage with ITV.

The dip in Champions League ratings coincides with English teams failing to reach the final and distorts Sky’s figures. The last time England had a representative in Europe’s showcase club match — Chelsea in 2012— an average of 8.2m watched the penalty shootout victory over Bayern Munich on ITV, while Sky had 1.5m viewers for the game.

Francis made similar face- saving remarks when Sky learned they had lost the rights in November 2013, which did not go down well with UEFA at the time. They will not be impressed again to have him effectively dismissing their Champions League as irrelevant compared to the Premier League — and it will not help Sky during the next tender.

But Francis knows just how important the Champions League will be to BT Sport in expanding their business.

As Sportsmail revealed last week, BT will be charging £5 a month for their European football, which includes the Europa League, having given away their sports content for free up to now for their broadband customers.

Just 497,000 people watched Sky Sports’ coverage of Barcelona’s Champions League triumph over Juventus

Goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen celebrates with the trophy after winning at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin

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