Rivals as a warning example
There is a fear of a big TV defeat in the Bundesliga
October 24, 2023, 1:10 p.m
The Italians’ loss in selling media rights and bad news from France are fueling the Bundesliga’s fears. The TV rights for the years 2025 to 2029 are to be awarded in the current season. The outlook could be better.
To be on the safe side, the Bundesliga bosses should copy and paste the statement from the frustrated Aurelio De Laurentiis into their documents. The club boss of champions SSC Napoli described Serie A’s loss-making business in the sale of media rights as a “defeat for Italian football”. The news from Italy coupled with the bad news from France is fueling the fear of local club bosses that they will have to resort to De Laurentiis’ statement in around six months.
The 20 Serie A clubs will receive 900 million per season from next year until the 2028/29 season from DAZN and Sky. The streaming portal and the pay-TV broadcaster have held the rights since 2021 – but have so far paid 27.5 million euros more per season. The decline in revenue is causing dissatisfaction among the Italian clubs, which had in the meantime considered setting up their own platform for the broadcast – three clubs did not agree to the conclusion of the contract.
If things go badly, frustration could also spread among the 36 German professional clubs in the second quarter of next year. Then the German Football League (DFL) wants to award the rights for the German-speaking area for the seasons from 2025/2026 to 2028/2029. The clubs in the Bundesliga and the 2nd division currently receive around 1.1 billion euros per season – which already corresponds to a minus of 100 million compared to the previous cycle. Due to the rumored economic problems of possible interested parties, there has been speculation for months about a further decline in income.
Things are looking bleak in France
To prevent this, the new DFL managing directors Marc Lenz and Steffen Merkel have been advertising on their own behalf for months. After the clubs’ most recent meeting, one superlative was lined up after the next. “The Bundesliga is a top league,” said Merkel – and, with a view to the tender in the spring, announced: “We will offer an innovative, top media product at world level.”
However, their French colleagues from Ligue 1 also thought so – and failed spectacularly in their first attempt. The LFP league association wanted to earn 800 million euros per season between 2024 and 2029 from the sale of live rights alone. In addition, 200 million should flow for the secondary exploitation rights in order to reach one billion – instead of the current 624 million euros per season.
A few days ago, the first phase of the tender ended with an embarrassment for the LFP: None of the five packages put together could be awarded because the financial conditions were not met by any interested parties. Now the association must negotiate with the potential candidates individually. The usual suspects that are being brought into play for the German rights alongside Sky and DAZN are: Amazon, Apple and beIN Sports.
There is still hope
Who gets which rights in Germany is also in the hands of the Federal Cartel Office, which is currently examining the DFL concept. The “no single buyer rule” that has been in effect since 2016 is also up for debate. This regulation means that one provider is not allowed to acquire all live rights on its own. Sky and DAZN currently share the rights with the exception of a few games.
If the top of the cartel office had its way, fans could look forward to a subscription price war between broadcasters in the future. “From a purely competitive perspective, a situation in which two or more providers can show all games would be welcome,” said President Andreas Mundt recently to the news portal t-online. If, against all expectations, this financial dream result comes about, the Bundesliga bosses could also delete De Laurentiis’ statement.