FOXA - Rivals battle over Champions League soccer rights expected to top $2B

Soccer's biggest annual event has its U.S. broadcast rights back on the block, and a number of traditional and next-generation media firms are squaring off in the latest high-dollar sports showdown.

The Union of European Football Associations is expected today to start soliciting bids for U.S. TV rights to the Champions League, with bids due Aug. 15 - and the offers are expected to double current prices, to at least $2B for a six-year deal.

CBS ( NASDAQ: PARA ) ( PARAA ) and Univision ( TV ) currently holds the rights in a three-year deal running from 2021-2024 . Turner Broadcasting ( WBD ), then part of AT&T, held the rights before that.

But the new bids can pursue a six-year deal until 2030, offering more time to bidders to ramp up marketing and production.

And UEFA has had preliminary talks with a wide variety of competitors, Bloomberg reports: NBC ( NASDAQ: CMCSA ), ESPN ( DIS ), CBS ( PARA ) ( PARAA ), Fox ( FOX ) ( FOXA ), Warner Bros. Discovery ( WBD ), Univision ( TV ), DAZN - and Amazon.com ( NASDAQ: AMZN ) and Apple ( NASDAQ: AAPL ).

In a benefit to streamers in this new era, Champions League is now relaxing a requirement that a minimum number of matches appear on legacy TV.

Amazon ( AMZN ) just sealed its deal to show Champions League in the UK for the first time , while Apple ( AAPL ) has a football landmark of its own in a 10-year deal for Major League Soccer .

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