In some countries around the world, Disney Plus offers live sports streams, for example showing certain F1 2025 Grand Prix races in the US. In the UK, however, it's not known as a sports streaming service... but that could change very soon.
Disney Plus has just announced that from October, it'll be broadcasting live football games, and you won't need to buy a more expensive tier to enjoy them. The standard £4.99-per-month ad-enabled tier is all you need to stream the sports, though I always recommend the £7.99 ad-free tier to new subscribers (more about the Disney Plus price here).
This is a big surprise for Disney Plus subscribers who thought they were just getting Star Wars, superheroes and Nat Geo, and helps the streamer better position itself against rivals like Netflix and Prime Video who also offer live sports.
The matches that Disney Plus will broadcast are from the UEFA Women's Champions League, which begins its 2025/26 season on Tuesday, October 7 (qualifying matches begin in July but it doesn't seem like Disney Plus will broadcast them).
Disney will get broadcast rights all the way up until the 2029/30 Women's Champions League too, so you're getting at least five years of footie through your subscription.
A new league system brings a shake-up to the Women's Champions League this year, which is currently dominated by two teams. Since the 2015/16 season only two teams have won every title: Lyon or Barcelona, with the latter having won the last two years.
The news comes just prior to the 2024/25 season's final on Saturday, May 24 between Arsenal and Barcelona. This is only available to watch through a £30.99-per-month TNT Sports (via Discovery Plus) subscription or a £25-per-month DAZN subscription (down to £15 if you commit to a whole year) so Disney Plus is going to be a much more affordable way to stream the league.
At the end of 2024, Disney Plus announced that it had also secured rights to the UEFA Conference League, albeit only in Sweden and Denmark. So this recent news shows that the streamer is making a big push into live football.
It's unlikely that Disney will secure rights to the biggest leagues like the Premier League or EFL, which are hotly contested by broadcasters whom pay hundreds of millions of pounds for the rights. But it's hard to watch some of the other leagues in the UK and so Disney Plus could do well to position itself as a one-stop-shop for these up-and-coming leagues.
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