Fans and pundits were left furious after this year's Champions League (BL) matches were moved from free-to-air M4 Sport to RTL's paid streaming platform. “Damn your subscription packages,” said one advertiser.
The background to the story is that Hungarian broadcaster RTL bought the rights to broadcast Champions League matches from UEFA last year for the period 2024-27. However, the channel, owned by Luxembourg RTL Group, broke with previous tradition and instead of broadcasting live free-to-air TV, it removed the majority of BL matches to its paid platform.
It's only been a few days since the broadcast, and all of this has already caused outrage among the fans.
Femcafe online magazine collected fan reactions in a Budapest bar, based on which: The paper says:Real popular anger is pouring in on RTL, which broadcasts on the paid platform.
“Best to watch Sport 1 and Sport 2 stream. Damn your subscription packages” – Open one of the pushers.
“If my favorite team is playing and it's pay-per-view, I can easily solve the problem. I'm sorry, but there are enough facilities, my wife and I also subscribe to Netflix, so I don't need RTL+ if I want to watch the Arsenal match. Everyone here knows how to import matches from foreign sites, and there are no longer divisions like in the past. So, it's very annoying to miss the main matches from M4 Sport, but it doesn't cause any heart problems. That's all, I don't subscribe, that's all.” Another guest said.
“I love football, and I would have liked to have watched Manchester City vs Inter Milan. As you can see, it’s not very good… The sports TV is showing Dortmund vs PSG, I don’t care. I felt it and came here, but what bothers me a little is that many of the matches will be pay-per-view. Listen! (The guest showed his phone and actually brought up an illegal stream from Reddit in a minute.) That’s it. What the hell am I going to pay for? I can even show this on TV. A lot of people do it in America too. I think this initiative will fail, but we’ll figure it out.” Another guest explained.
There were also people who subscribed to RTL+, but didn't think they would use it.
“For some of the matches I want to watch, I think it's too expensive. They want to pressure people for everything. That's also a hindrance. Then the RTL inner circle will know how valuable this is to them. I think I'll cancel later, I'm still in the trial period.” He added.
As with the field defenders, experts have also criticized the new paid broadcast system. For example, journalist Joseph Banki, a former national team footballer, expressed his devastating opinion on the subject on the Sportreggel program broadcast by National Spot Radio. “It's good that football is a business, but the fans and spectators must be served.” – The former Ferencvaros player summed up in Friday's broadcast.
Our former Olympic gymnast, host Zsuzsa Csisztu, spoke about the fact that the new BL system has finally started, which many thought would lead to more matches, but unfortunately that is not the case.
You can watch Sportreggel's Friday broadcast in the video below:
Morning Sports September 20, 2024
As is well known, and according to press reports, RTL sacrificed a large sum of money for the right to broadcast English Premier League matches last year.
“According to press reports, RTL has increased the broadcasting fee for the 2024-27 Champions League to such an extent that it will no longer allow the Hungarian public media, which responsibly manages itself from the Hungarian taxpayer’s forint, to pay it. According to press reports, RTL’s offer could mean that the match revenues will cost HUF 100 million, which will be further increased by broadcasting costs. If this is true, RTL in Hungary will certainly collect this amount from viewers.” MTVA announced at the time in response to the news.
According to the signs, the fans are not happy about this, so it is questionable to what extent the Champions League will be a commercial investment for RTL.
Naturally, all this does not comfort Hungarian fans. The good news for them is that they can still watch the matches of the Hungarian National League and Ferencvaros Europa League on M4 Sport for free, without any registration, on TV, on M4 Sport, and online on M4sport.hu, and they can listen to the broadcast on the national sports radio wave.
El Fradi's next match will be next Wednesday against Anderlecht, which fans can follow live on public media platforms.
September 25 – Anderlecht-Ferencvaros, 21:00
