Sports TV rights
The Bundesliga conference on Saturday will be weakened
As of: 3:49 p.m. | Reading time: 4 minutes
Von Steven Jörgensen, Berries Boßmann
Top teams like Bayern and Dortmund could soon be selected even more often for the game on Saturday evening
Those: dpa/Federico Gambarini
The TV rights for the Bundesliga are being reassigned. A lot is likely to change. Simply because the league has re-divided the packages and is putting pressure on Sky and DAZN. All information, all numbers.
For the Bundesliga and the TV broadcasters, it’s about the future! From mid-April, the TV rights for the 2025/26 to 2028/29 seasons will be auctioned over two weeks. Conversations are going on in the background. DFL managing director Steffen Merkel recently met with DAZN boss Alice Mascia in London. DAZN probably won’t like the fact that its previous package D is being reduced from 106 to 79 games (Sunday only). The Friday games will be moved into package B with the Saturday afternoon. DAZN would therefore have to invest around 150 million euros additionally per season – for example for the Saturday evening game – in order to be able to offer its subscribers the same amount.
The DFL cannot afford to scare away potential bidders. Industry experts predict that in the end they will only earn 800 to 900 million euros per season. That would be significantly less than the current 1.1 billion euros (until 2024/25). The DFL is trying a lot to prevent this.
The packages at a glance
In the current rights period, package D still contains the Friday games of the Bundesliga. From 2025/26, these will move to package B with the games on Saturday afternoon
Source: WORLD
Why did the DFL change the packages?
Otherwise it would have been almost certain that TV revenue would decline. Sky (currently around 600 million) and DAZN (250 to 300 million) could theoretically have gotten the previous packages again, possibly for less money. So there is movement in the market because both broadcasters have to fear losing a larger piece of the Bundesliga.
How does the auction work?
One package is auctioned off per day – the pay TV packages in the first week and the free TV packages in the second. The broadcasters submit bids in writing until the deadline expires. For each package, the DFL sets a minimum price that only the DFL and the Cartel Office know. If this is achieved and an offer is at least 20 percent higher than the next best one, the broadcaster will immediately win the contract. Otherwise, the highest bid and other factors (e.g. exploitation concept) will decide in the next round.
In what order are the pay TV packages auctioned?
That is still open, but the DFL will proceed tactically to put as much pressure as possible on those interested. The most promising scenario: Package B is put out to tender first. This contains 196 games (Saturdays 3.30 p.m., Fridays 8.30 p.m. plus relegation to the 1st league). Anyone who gets this package will already have more than half of the 306 games guaranteed. Package A with 35 conference calls (Saturdays) matches package B. It would be unusual if individual games and conference were broadcast on different channels.
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Broadcasters without packages would now have to take part in package C (33 top games on Saturday evening plus the Super Cup) or package D (79 games on Sunday). This could be the hottest bidding battle between Sky and DAZN. This is followed by the second league with packages F and G.
What additional incentives are there for pay TV?
The “no single buyer rule” was abolished. A broadcaster could now buy all live rights on pay TV. Until now it was like this: If e.g. B. Sky already had three of the four packages, the broadcaster could no longer purchase the fourth exclusively. This would clear the way for competition, which would mean lower bids. Now another broadcaster would have to fear coming away empty-handed and therefore bid high here too.
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Another factor: Viewer magnets like Bayern and Dortmund can be selected by the pay broadcaster for the top game on Saturday evening more often than before. Instead of eight times, it is now up to ten times. The second option is a game on Sunday (each team up to eight times), the third option is for Friday or a game on Saturday afternoon (up to ten times).
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One effect: The conference is weakened because the top teams play less often on Saturdays at 3:30 p.m. A sports show format, whether at 6.30 p.m. or 7.15 p.m. (both are advertised), is then less well attended.
Do Sky and DAZN now offer more?
Sky, which is backed by the US telecommunications company Comcast, would have the opportunity to show all first division games live for the first time since the 2016/17 season. Comcast could see this as an opportunity to really attack the German market again. However, the past shows that the pay-TV customer potential in Germany has limits. So Sky has to weigh up: Will the number of customers increase enough to make it worth paying a billion euros per season? One thing is certain: Sky absolutely needs the Bundesliga because it no longer has the Champions League.
DAZN, which is financed by billionaire Len Blavatnik (66), also has to check: Does more Bundesliga than before also result in an increase in subscribers? In the past, the DAZN management emphasized that they would like to have more Bundesliga – but only at the right price. So you probably won’t pay huge sums of money. Especially since the platform has a bargaining chip: almost the entire Champions League until 2026/27.
The text was conducted for the Sports Competence Center (WELT, SPORT BILD, BILD) and first published in SPORT BILD.
2024-03-22 14:49:11
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