Sky and ITV win rights to total coverage in £240m deal

Champions' League: BBC shut out by rivals' extraordinary three-year contract which will offer live viewing of every match in competition

The BBC's latest attempt to reassert itself as a major force in sports broadcasting was thwarted yesterday when BSkyB and ITV won the rights to screen European Champions' League matches from next season.

Under the terms of an extraordinary £240m, three-year deal, every single match in football's most prestigious club tournament will be available live on either Sky or ITV from the start of the 2003-04 season to the end of the 2005-06 competition. ITV will choose the "best" two group-stage matches each Tuesday and show them both live. Sky will show the six other Tuesday games and all eight Wednesday matches simultaneously live across a series of dedicated channels. The pair will share the quarter-finals and semi-finals between them and both will show the final live.

Although the Champions' League will have only one group stage next season, and therefore see a reduction from 17 games to 13 for the finalists, the value of the rights have increased. The broadcasters have paid £240m between them over three years, or £80m per year. Sky is understood to be paying more than half of the fee. ITV's current exclusive deal, which expires in May next year, cost £260m for four years, or £65m per year.

"The decision to award the rights to ITV and BSkyB was based on an assessment of the overall revenues to European football, the commercial opportunities offered and the promotion of the competition available through this combination," said a spokesman for Uefa, the European game's governing body. He added that a "competitive" bid for the live rights had also been received from the BBC, and said that "all five of the UK's leading broadcasters" showed interest in the bidding process.

BSkyB's winning bid only serves to strengthen its dominant place in sports broadcasting in Britain. The company also holds the rights to live Premiership and Nationwide League matches, live football from other European leagues and international football.

The BBC's football portfolio is limited to some FA Cup matches, some England games, some live Scottish Premier League games on BBC Scotland and the occasional Uefa Cup match.

"The Champions' League has broadened the horizons of football fans – far beyond the game's traditional and local base – and this [deal] is a dream offering," Vic Wakeling, the managing director of Sky Sports, said last night. "Every single game played in the competition will now be seen live in the UK."

The British rights are the first to be announced by Uefa, and signal disappointment for the BBC, which had attempted to negotiate a way around the problem of the complex sponsorship deal which oblige broadcasters to show adverts. The corporation had reportedly hoped to get around this by "buying off" the Champions' League major sponsors, using licence payers' money, in order to stand a chance of winning the rights to be screened without heavily-trailored ad breaks.

The BBC said in a statement last night that there was a limit to how much it could bid for the rights. "The BBC made a fair and competitive bid for the rights to the Champions' League, but it was unsuccessful," the statement said. "We have made it clear throughout the bidding process that we were interested in the rights, but not at any price. We did not feel we could justify the licence fee payers income by bidding any higher. We wish ITV, Sky and Uefa the best with the tournament."

ITV's controller of sport, Brian Barwick, said: " To have exclusive terrestrial rights to the world's premier club competition for another three years underlines our continuing commitment to top class sport."