Netherlands finals go global

The UEFA European Under-21 Championship in the Netherlands has attracted worldwide television coverage - giving extensive exposure to the finals both in and outside Europe.

Free-to-air coverage
The focus has been on securing as much free-to-air coverage as possible, which is the case for the majority of the eight participating countries, while popular pay-TV channels Sky Sports and Charlton will show all the matches live in the United Kingdom and Israel respectively.

Broadening appeal
As part of the drive to broaden the U21 competition's appeal, pan-regional agreements are in place with ESPN in Africa, the Americas and the Pacific region and ART in the Middle East territory, while individual agreements have been found in Asia, including Eurosoccer in China, PCCW in Hong Kong and RCTI in Indonesia. In order to enhance the coverage in the region, free live streaming will be available on www.uefa.com in Japan and Korea Republic.

Extensive coverage
As far as the host nation is concerned, Dutch TV station Tien has acquired the rights and will also produce the TV signal for all broadcasters worldwide. Viewers will also be given extensive coverage of the tournament in other European markets. RTBF and VRT (Belgium), RAI (Italy), TVI (Portugal), Czeska Televize (Czech Republic) and B92 (Serbia) will include the games of their respective national teams in their schedules, while W9 (France), Eurosport (Germany) and Canal+ (Spain) have committed to showing several group-stage matches and the final phase.