German Bundesliga rights battle kicks off
Jörn Krieger ©RapidTVNews | 09-02-2012
Germany's national football association Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) has got the ball rolling on bidding competition for the domestic TV rights to Germany's national football league Bundesliga.
The tender runs for the seasons from 2013/14 to 2016/17: Interested parties can submit their bids until 2 April 2012.
It comprises two scenarios each containing 19 rights packages and 6 rights package bundles for the distribution platforms cable/satellite/DTT, IPTV and internet TV/mobile TV. The main difference in the two variations is the free-to-air highlights coverage of the Bundesliga games on Saturday, the main competition day.
The first scenario contains the free-to-air highlights to be shown from 18.30 CET on conventional television, as it is currently the case. In the second scenario, the first coverage would be on internet TV and mobile TV and only from 21.45 CET on conventional television. This would effectively put an end to public broadcaster in its current shape, which has traditionally been showing the first Bundesliga images on free-to-air television.
The German cartel office gave the green light to the rights auction with the two scenarios in January 2012.
The domestic free-to-air Bundesliga rights are currently held by ARD, ZDF and Sport1, with the pay-TV rights being in the hands of Sky Deutschland (cable and satellite) and Deutsche Telekom (IPTV and mobile TV).
Industry insiders expect a strong battle in particular for the pay-TV rights: Sky is thought to want to also aquire the IPTV rights while Telekom wants to snap away the satellite rights from Sky in order to be able to transmit its Bundesliga channel "LIGA total!" to DTH satellite households. However, there is a dispute among observers whether Telekom is legally able to extend its TV service in such a way as long as the German federal state still has a shareholding in the company.
New contenders are already lining up: Vodafone and Yahoo! recently confirmed their interest in the Bundesliga rights. Further parties likely to be among the bidders are KF 15, the media company of recently deceased Leo Kirch, and publishing house Axel Springer which could use the rights to expand the website of its market-leading tabloid newspaper BILD.
DFL wants to decide about the rights allocation by the end of April 2012.
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