NYON, Switzerland — The Women's Champions League in European soccer will go mostly behind a paywall for the next five seasons on Disney+ in a deal announced by UEFA's joint venture with top clubs on Friday.
The final on Saturday between defending champion Barcelona and Arsenal in Lisbon completes a four-year broadcast deal where fans could watch games for free on streaming service DAZN and YouTube.
The Women's Champions League is expanding next season to 18 teams from 16, in a single league standings instead of groups before the knockout stage. A second tier Women's Europa Cup also will launch.
''The five-year deal will ensure that each of the 75 matches in the newly expanded (Champions League) is available to Disney+ customers in Europe at no additional cost,'' said UC3, the commercial partnership between UEFA and the European Club Association.
Broadcasts will be produced by Disney-owned ESPN with ''multilingual commentary and comprehensive pre- and post-match programming,'' the UC3 statement said.
The broadcast strategy through 2030 will allow one game per match week to be shown on some free-to-air networks and members of the European Broadcasting Union.
Selected games will be shown in countries including France, Germany and Spain, UC3 said.
The value of the Disney+ and EBU deals were not revealed.
