Ziggo Sport will be scaling up for next football season. The sports channel will have the exclusive broadcasting rights to the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League from season 2024/2025. The three leagues account for over 500 football matches a year. Today, Ziggo Sport announced its football programming from August.

The sports channel's programming largely depends on the set-up of the UEFA club competitions. UEFA has changed these considerably from next season. Clubs in the UEFA Champions League will now play a group stage with 36 clubs in the same group. Now they are 32 teams in eight pools of four teams. Each club will play eight matches in the group stage against eight different clubs, four at home and four away.

In this group stage, a maximum of nine matches take place at the same time (eight in the UEFA Conference League). In January, on the last matchday of the group stage, even eighteen matches take place at the same time. Ziggo Sport selects which matches will be shown on which channel on each match night.

New format
Who plays against whom in the group stage will be determined in a weighted draw. Each club plays against two absolute top clubs, but also against two somewhat lower-ranked clubs. The eight clubs that finish highest in the group stage will advance directly to the knockout phase. Clubs in places 9 to 24 will play an intermediate round. Numbers 25 to 36 are directly eliminated from UEFA European football. The UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League have a similar format.

Marcel Beerthuizen, director of Ziggo Sport: "More participating clubs, more Dutch clubs, more matches, more different opponents and more unpredictability, especially in the group stage of the three competitions. That will produce exciting television. The whole of the Netherlands will soon be able to watch top football."

Dutch clubs
Ziggo customers will watch matches of participating Dutch clubs and the three finals on Ziggo Sport (channel 14). If two Dutch clubs play simultaneously, Ziggo Sport will also broadcast a match on Ziggo channel 13. By broadcasting the matches of Dutch clubs on different channels, the channel has space for extensive previews and post-match reviews for all matches. Every match night there will be at least one match to watch, even if there are no Dutch clubs left in the competition.

All matches
With the wide range of football on offer in the three European club competitions, Ziggo Sport Totaal's channels (including Ziggo Sport Racing, Golf, Tennis and Docu) will be renamed. To avoid confusion, from 1 July the channels will be called Ziggo Sport and Ziggo Sport 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. In addition, the sports channel will offer 12 more streams via the Ziggo GO app, giving Ziggo Sport Totaal subscribers simultaneous access to up to 18 live matches. For the football fan who cannot choose, there is Switch, a switching channel with live highlights of the various simultaneous matches.

Ziggo Sport Free
For football fans without a Ziggo or Ziggo Sport Totaal subscription, Ziggo Sport provides free access to the football matches of the participating Dutch football clubs and the finals via a Ziggo Sport Free account. At home or away, they can watch on smart TV, tablet and smartphone via the Ziggo GO app, or online via ziggogo.tv (laptop/pc). Anyone can easily sign up to gain access. Via Ziggo Sport Free, Ziggo Sport will provide a short pre- and post-match review.

Live registration
Not only does Ziggo Sport have the broadcasting rights of the three European leagues, the sports channel is also responsible for the live registration of all home matches of the Dutch clubs. For this, Ziggo Sport works closely with the experienced Dutch sports producer Southfields, which has a lot of experience with live football, among others for Talpa and ESPN. In addition, facility partners EMG and NEP are involved in registration and broadcasting.

The exact programming will be available from mid-August on ziggosport.nl

The Ziggo Sport studio will undergo a major renovation in July. With a completely new decor and an interactive presentation desk, the sports channel will soon be ready for the new UEFA football season.