TV rights auction begins
Billionaire poker keeps Bundesliga clubs on tenterhooks
April 15, 2024, 12:11 p.m
It is by far the most important source of income in German professional football: media rights. Poker starts now for the upcoming seasons. The clubs are worried that there could be losses again.
What’s up?
The German Football League (DFL) will sell the German-language media rights for professional football (Bundesliga plus 2nd league) for the four seasons from 2025/26 to 2028/29 at an auction that takes place every four years. This involves Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and the German-speaking areas in East Belgium and South Tyrol. At the end of February, the Federal Cartel Office approved the DFL’s auction model.
What is it about?
As always with the allocation of rights about the medium-term future, after all, the proceeds are by far the most important source of income for the clubs. This time, however, the club bosses are even more worried than usual because the turbulent market is causing concern. The 36 professional clubs currently receive around 1.1 billion euros per season – which already corresponds to an annual decrease of 100 million compared to the previous cycle. Due to the rumored economic problems of potential interested parties, there is speculation that revenues will fall further below the billion mark.
How should losses be prevented?
In order to deliver the promised “innovative, world-class, top media product” and sell it at a high price, there will in future be short interviews after the bus arrives or access to the cabin. The clubs should “allow more closeness”. Pay TV providers should be allowed to prepare highlight clips for their own social media channels during the games.
What’s new in the tender?
The most important change is the elimination of the so-called “no single buyer rule”. In the future, selling the rights to live games will only be possible again to one provider – so a subscription could be enough for fans. But the opposite case is also possible. Since there are four different packages for pay TV up for auction, four subscriptions could end up being necessary. Until the end of the current period, the pay channel Sky and the streaming platform DAZN will share the rights to the live games – with the exception of a few matches that are shown on free TV on Sat.1.
Who are the interested parties?
The usual suspects Sky and DAZN are considered the first contenders. As always, the DFL hopes for competition to increase revenue. Among other things, RTL is mentioned. Amazon, Telekom, Apple and Disney are also brought into play once again.
The future of the summaries on Saturday evening in the ARD “Sportschau” remains open. The DFL is putting out two rights packages for first-time use on free TV: from 6 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. or from 7:15 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. All free TV channels can submit offers for this. At least nine games will be broadcast live on free TV.
What about the game plan?
Fans and clubs do not have to get used to new kick-off times. Only 15 games per season, instead of the previous ten, will be played on Sundays at 7.30 p.m. for participants in the European Cup. The DFL is thus reacting to the new mode of European competitions such as the Champions League or Europa League.
What does the auction process look like?
From Monday, part of the DFL leadership will retreat to a secret location in Frankfurt am Main, as usual in the past. The auction, during which interested parties submit their offers, is scheduled to run for around two weeks.
What happens after that?
Traditionally, after the sale there is an argument about who gets how much money – and about how more can finally be achieved through foreign marketing (currently around 200 million). But this time the pieces of the cake could be smaller for all clubs. The reason is an investor’s failed entry.
What are the effects?
In order to meet the investment costs estimated at 600 to 700 million euros over the next five to six years, “domestic financing” is favored. In plain language, this would mean that the DFL would withhold the necessary sums and not distribute them to the clubs.