The DFL is trying to increase revenues from media rights. According to a media report, the Saturday evening game is to be made more attractive for the new rights phase from 2025/26 – at the expense of the sports show.
The German Football League is trying to generate significantly higher income for the sale of the media rights to the Bundesliga. The current contract is still running, but for the next rights period from the 2025/26 season, the award will be put out to tender again – and that could be bad news for all fans of the “Sportschau”. According to information from “Sport-Bild”, the DFL is dealing with a model that could lead to the end of the TV institution on Saturday evening.
Accordingly, there are considerations that in future the first summary of the Saturday afternoon games on free TV should no longer start at the same time as the top game at 6.30 p.m. in order to make it more attractive and expensive for pay TV. According to the newspaper, the pay-TV broadcaster Sky is currently paying around 200 million euros for the rights to the Saturday night Bundesliga game alone. In the current rights period, the 36 first and second division clubs will receive an average total of 1.1 billion euros per season.
Shorter broadcasting time for sports shows or only on the Internet
Should a corresponding concept be awarded the contract for the new allocation of rights, this could result in the sports show being broadcast either at a later date with a shorter transmission time or only on the Internet. The ARD initially did not comment on Wednesday at the request of the German Press Agency.
In order to further increase the attractiveness of the Saturday evening game, the top clubs should in future be allowed to play ten times per season at this time instead of the previous eight. According to DPA information, moving the top game on Saturday to 8:30 p.m. is not an option. As before, this slot is to be reserved for the top game in the 2nd Bundesliga.
The plans for increasing the value of the Saturday evening game must be seen against the background of the DFL’s failed media deal. The league association wanted to sell 12.5 percent of the media rights to a US investor for 20 years. In addition, the media rights would have been outsourced to a separate company, from which the private equity company would have received its shares. The DFL wanted to take up to two billion euros in one fell swoop and pass some on to the clubs. In the decisive vote, however, the DFL plans fell short of the necessary number of votes of 24. Only 20 of the 36 German professional clubs voted in favor. Now the DFL must come up with new plans to increase revenue and not fall even further behind foreign leagues such as the English Premier League.
Source: Stern
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