The last round of 16 of the 2024 European Championship between Austria and Turkey will take place on Tuesday. But anyone who turns on the television will be disappointed – at least on free TV. Neither ARD nor ZDF nor RTL will broadcast the match. Why?
Anyone who is not a MagentaTV customer will not be able to watch the round of 16 match of the European Football Championship between Turkey and Austria live on television. The match on Tuesday, kick-off is at 9 p.m. in Leipzig, will not be shown on free TV on the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF or on RTL. This caused some criticism in advance, especially on social networks. There are around three million people of Turkish origin living in Germany.
Euro 2024: Türkiye vs Austria not on free TV – reason is complicated contracts
The background: MagentaTV is allowed to exclusively show a round of 16 match at the European Championships. The paid streaming service chose the match between the Turks and the Austrians, while ZDF opted for the match between the German national team and Denmark.
The basis for the distribution is a complicated contract. In 2019, Telekom secured the complete media rights for the European Championship in Germany. It then shared a large part of the European Championship rights with ARD/ZDF in an extensive contract and in return received broadcasting licenses for all matches of the 2020 European Championship and all matches of the 2022 World Cup.
46 of the 51 European Championship matches were or are being broadcast on free TV, 17 each on ARD and ZDF, and twelve matches on RTL. MagentaTV retained exclusive rights for five matches – including the last round of 16.
All other round of 16 matches were broadcast free of charge
The game can only be viewed in the ARD and ZDF media libraries after the final whistle. The game can be heard live in the ARD audio library.
European Championship 2024
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So far, ARD has shown Spain against Georgia and Portugal against Slovenia in the round of 16. ARD also has Romania against the Netherlands on Tuesday (6 p.m.). ZDF was also there live for the Germany game, England against Slovakia and France against Belgium on Monday. RTL broadcast the defeat of defending champion Italy against Switzerland on Saturday.
Transparency note: Der stern is part of RTL Deutschland.
Source: Stern
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