Why Liverpool clash with AC Milan is on Amazon Prime and not TNT Sports

TNT Sports, formerly BT Sport, has been the home of live Champions League football in the UK for the last nine years, but that changes today, with Liverpool's game against AC Milan being screened by Amazon Prime.

BT bought the rights to show every Champions League game for a huge sum of money back in 2013, paying around £900million ($1.1billion) for a three-year deal which ran between 2015 and 2018.

That deal, which continues to be criticised by many for taking the biggest club competition in the world exclusively behind a paywall, was renewed twice for the periods between 2018 and 2021, and 2021 and 2024.

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However, during the 2022 round of bidding, which covered the 2024-25, 2025-26, and 2026-27 seasons, BT's stranglehold was broken.

TNT Sports will still show the vast majority of the matches - 187 of the 204 games, to be precise - but Amazon will show the other 17 matches (one per game week).

The revamped Champions League could see teams play as many as 17 matches this season. Each of the 36 teams will play eight matches during the new league phase, with the teams that finish between ninth and 16th in the league table entering into a two-legged play-off round to decide who gets through to the last 16. The last-16, quarter-final and semi-final ties will all be two-legged affairs, before the final in Munich at the end of May.

While TNT will broadcast every match on Wednesdays and Thursdays throughout the competition, Amazon will have the first pick of matches for every Tuesday, and in the first game week has, unsurprisingly, plumped for AC Milan vs Liverpool.

The Champions League coverage on Prime, which has also shown 20 Premier League matches each season for the last five seasons, will be fronted by Gabby Logan and will feature the likes of Clarence Seedorf and Frank Lampard as pundits.