CBS Sports Aims To Bring UEFA Champions League Coverage Onsite Broadcaster will produce studio show pitch-side when the league allows it By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Wednesday, January 6, 2021 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
In the midst of its first year as rightsholder for UEFA Champions League coverage in the U.S., CBS Sports is pleased with the effort so far.
Now, as the broadcaster prepares for the return of the world's biggest soccer competition with the Round of 16 in February, viewers shouldn't expect major changes to a package that has included the live streaming of all matches on CBS All Access and match-day whiparound coverage with The Golazo Show on CBS Sports Network. One major change, though, could be coming: bringing CBS's studio coverage pitch-side in the months ahead.
CBS Sports anchors its UEFA Champions League studio coverage from a facility at IMG Studios near London. Pictured (from left) are host Kate Abdo and analysts Roberto Martinez, Jamie Carragher, and Micah Richards.
The second we're allowed to do it, we're going to do it, says Pete Radovich, creative director, CBS Sports/coordinating producer, UEFA Champions League coverage. I'm asking UEFA every week, What's the rule? What's the rule? Can we go yet? Can we go?'
We're hoping that by, obviously, the Finals, Semifinals, that's the case, he continues. But, if we're allowed to go even earlier, we will be there. To experience this product the proper way is to be in the stadium pitch-side with fans in the stands. That's what I'm most looking forward to. For the viewers, the second we're allowed in, we're going to be there.
Currently, studio programming for CBS Sports' Champions League coverage originates from IMG Studios in the London suburb of Stockley Park, but it's a global effort that supports the broadcaster's international soccer programming. CBS Interactive's Stamford, CT, facility handles transmission and encoding of the streams while much of the crew overseeing the project is still working remotely due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Getting all this off the ground, though, takes a truly impressive effort.
2020 was a year of postponements, cancellations, and sports-television operations professionals' reacting to last-second changes. One of the most dramatic examples of the launch of a new property in head-spinning fashion was CBS Sports' taking over the UEFA Champions League.
This time last year, CBS Sports had already surprised some in the industry by scooping up the next round of U.S. broadcast rights for the biggest soccer competition in the world, and planning was under way. However, those plans were drawn up for when CBS would take over, in 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic turned the world - and the industry - on its head, and then-rightsholder Turner Sports announced that it was leaving its contract. CBS Sports had only 28 days to get its Champions League coverage on the air.
We had ambitious plans, and then the opportunity presented itself last summer, so all that stuff kind of went out the window, says Jeff Gerttula, EVP/GM, CBS Sports Digital. It was quite a ride.
Gerttula, Radovich, and CBS brass needed to scramble to hire on-air talent, crew up match days in studio, and, actually, find a studio. Radovich notes that CBS Sports EVP, Operations and Engineering, Patty Power and her team played a huge role in leveraging some relationships to help get things up and running in London. Without those previous relationships, he says, CBS's coverage would look very different and, likely, would be originating in the U.S., which would have severely limited the options for on-air talent.
As part of UEFA Champions League coverage, CBS Sports introduced a whiparound program called The Golazo Show, airing on CBSSN. The show is hosted by Nico Cantor (left) and Gus Poyet.
Also aiding the effort were a clear vision from Radovich and Gerttula and the well-defined brand of the UEFA Champions League. Both Radovich and Gerttula are fans of European soccer, and, when it came to deciding how to guide and gear CBS Sports' coverage of the Champions League, it was pretty simple: this was going to be for those who knew the sport best.
We're going to do this for us, for hardcore fans, says Radovich, who moved to London last year to oversee the launch and had lived in Europe in various parts of his childhood. We're not going to worry about the non-soccer fans. Let's do it for the hardcore fans like us. From then, it got easier because you weren't trying to reinvent the wheel. We were just kind of figuring who do we want to hear from? What games do we want to watch? How are we going to watch them? It was just using our instincts and our own life experiences of watching hundreds and hundreds of hours of European football through our lives that helped us shape this.
On-screen branding, Radovich notes, didn't take much. Anyone who has watched the UEFA Champions League knows that the competition has a well-defined brand, one that includes a distinct logo and graphics, as well as a memorable anthem. CBS was going to have to do little alteration to that.
This is a brand that works, he explains. The look works, the graphics look, everyone loves the anthem. We embraced it. We built our studio look around the look of Champions League. There's that familiarity. Everything we did was leaning right into what the brand was. For a creative director, that is a huge advantage because that's one thing that we didn't have to deal with. People love the brand, and that familiarity is part of the strength of Champions League. We weren't going to change any of that.
The UEFA Champions League returns Feb. 16 with the first leg of the Round of 16. CBS Sport
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
CBS Sports Aims To Bring UEFA Champions League Coverage Onsite Broadcaster will produce studio show pitch-side when the league allows it By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
