Champions League: "36% fall in audiences over five seasons" (Barney Francis, Sky Sports)

"Over the last five seasons we have seen Champions League audiences fall 36%. Last season, we saw our lowest ever average match audience and not a single European game appeared in our top 40 football matches. Overall, Champions League accounts for just 2.5% of Sky Sports viewing, while the Premier League is seven times bigger (17.5%)," stated Barney Francis, the managing director of the British pay-TV channel Sky Sports, in a blog posting on 08/06/2015.

These comments came two days after the 2014-15 final of the Champions League (Juventus - FC Barcelona 1-3 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, GER), which attracted 497,000 subscribers to Sky Sports on average, 58% less than the final in 2013-14 (1.18 million subscribers for Real Madrid CF - Atlético de Madrid 4-1 a.e.t.).

The exclusive audiovisual rights to the Champions League and UEFA Europa League in the United Kingdom for the 2015-2018 cycle were acquired by the pay-TV group BT Sport, for €1.07bn over the period, on 09/11/2013. "In the two years since the launch of BT’s sports channel, Sky’s revenue in the UK and Ireland has grown…