The Bundesliga coverage on the ARD “Sportschau” on Saturday evening is threatened with extinction after the Federal Cartel Office examines the tender. The authority has fundamentally accepted the model presented by the German Football League (DFL) with a possible later summary of the first division games on Saturday. According to managing director Steffen Merkel, the DFL assumes that there will be no more changes. “Otherwise we wouldn’t be sitting here today,” said Merkel on Tuesday during a media roundtable in Hamburg.
“According to its preliminary opinion, the Federal Cartel Office can tolerate the implementation of the model in the form presented to it and has informed the DFL of this,” the authority said in a statement on Tuesday. Before the final approval is given, the companies involved in the process “will now have the opportunity to comment on the Federal Cartel Office’s preliminary assessment”. The allocation of rights for the Bundesliga for the 2025/26 to 2028/29 seasons should be completed before the start of the European Championship in June at the latest.
Later “sports shows” are considered excluded
With the model generally accepted by the authorities, it is possible to eliminate the summary of the Bundesliga on free TV on Saturday from 6.30 p.m., as is currently offered by the ARD “Sportschau”. With this variant, the highlights would only be shown on free-to-air television from 7:15 p.m. But there is also a second variant: This would be a summary at 6:30 p.m., as the authorities and the DFL announced. “Which package gets the contract depends on the content concepts and requirements,” Merkel told “Sport Bild” at the beginning of January.
“If the later time is accepted, the buyer of the rights would also have the opportunity to distribute his highlight program via his own online media library from the end of the program,” explained Andreas Mundt, President of the Federal Cartel Office.
So far, ARD has not wanted to publicly comment on the idea of postponing the summary to 7:15 p.m. However, it is ruled out that the broadcaster, which has been showing the highlights of the league in the “Sportschau” since the 2003/04 season, would bid on a package with later highlight rights in the tender.
The second major change to the tender for Bundesliga rights is the abolition of the so-called no-single-buyer rule. This rule states that not one single pay-TV provider is allowed to buy all the live rights, but at least two must be involved. Sky and DAZN will share these rights until 2025.
In the auction planned for April, a single broadcaster could now acquire all pay-TV rights, creating a monopoly. But there are also other options. Four different pay-TV packages are being advertised. It could also be the case that fans will need even more subscriptions from 2025 onwards in order to be able to watch live games in the first Bundesliga.
“We have seen significantly more movement in the market for live football broadcasts in recent years thanks to the activities of companies such as DAZN, RTL and Amazon,” said Andreas Mundt from the Federal Cartel Office. “This makes it possible for us to comply with the DFL’s proposal to waive the general requirement in the current award that no company may acquire the live rights to Bundesliga games alone.”
Most important source of income
“We welcome this as the DFL,” said Merkel at the end of the “no single buyer rule”. “It means that one person can buy anything,” said the managing director. But it doesn’t necessarily mean “that someone will buy everything.” The idea behind it: This new regulation should increase competitive pressure. According to Merkel, in the event that there are two pay-TV providers, this means “that these two broadcasters will be able to cooperate much more closely with each other than they have been able to do so far.”
What is also new in the model presented by Merkel is that one of the packages advertised includes the rights to broadcast all individual Bundesliga games on Friday and Saturday. Previously, the Friday and Sunday games were bundled into one package, which DAZN currently holds. According to Merkel, the games on Sunday can be purchased in a single package, as can the Saturday game at 6:30 p.m.
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Merkel did not provide any detailed information about the financial expectations of the tender. TV rights are by far the most important source of income for the Bundesliga. The league currently earns an average of around 1.1 billion euros per season. Pay TV providers Sky and DAZN pay more than 80 percent of this.
The Federal Cartel Office is crucial because it has to grant approval for the central marketing practiced so far by the league association. Media companies can currently register with the DFL. You will then receive a schedule, procedural rules, deadlines and criteria for admission. The actual tender documents will later be sent to the approved companies.