Second attempt: The league sells its television rights and wants to raise as much money as possible. The auction lasts almost two weeks. The questions and answers about it.
Following an arbitration ruling, the German Football League must restart the auction of TV rights. The billion-dollar poker game is to start again as soon as possible. With a delay of around five months, a total of 15 TV packages are up for grabs, which are to be awarded to the highest-bidding broadcasters and media companies.
What does this mean for the fans?
Due to the delay in the auction, fans will not know which subscriptions they will need in the coming season. Theoretically, it may be that only one contract will be necessary in the future. However, it is still possible that more than two subscriptions will be necessary from 2025. The delay will initially have no consequences for the current Bundesliga season. Football fans’ contracts with Sky and/or DAZN will continue to apply.
What happens now?
The DFL is starting the aborted auction process from the beginning. This means that the already awarded package B is being re-launched. It contains the games on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and on Friday evening as well as the relegation games. That is a total of 196 live games. The dispute between the DFL and DAZN was sparked by the awarding of package B.
Why is the package so valuable?
To date, more than 80 percent of the revenue of around 1.1 billion euros per season has come from the marketing of the pay-TV sector – and this ratio to free TV is unlikely to change much after the new auction. B is the largest pay package and is therefore likely to have the largest share of total revenue.
Which other packages are important?
Packages A, C and D are also valuable. They contain additional pay-TV rights for live broadcasts of the 1st league. – A contains the conferences. – C is the package with the top games on Saturday at 6.30 p.m. and the Supercup. It is the smallest with 34 games, but is very popular thanks to the top games. – D includes the Sunday games. With a total of 79 live games, it includes the option of showing games several times on free TV.
What consequences will the restart of the auction have for Sky and DAZN?
Both companies now know how much Package B is worth to their competitor. This has never happened before. According to dpa information, DAZN had offered around 400 million euros annually for Package B – i.e. around 1.6 billion euros for the four-year rights period. Over this period of four seasons, the offer was said to have been around 320 million euros higher than that of the competition. These figures should help Sky in particular when calculating a new offer. The competitor now knows that a bank guarantee is necessary and can meet all the formal requirements in time to be successful with a higher offer.
What does this mean for the DFL?
The DFL did not look good when the auction was canceled. The arbitration tribunal noticed a procedural error and “partially upheld the lawsuit against the awarding of rights package B in the media rights tender for the 2025/26 to 2028/29 seasons,” as the league put it. However, the restart could now pay off for the league. Since competitors will probably bid more in the new auction than they did the first time, the league could generate higher revenues than it would have in the first attempt.
What other packages are available at the auction?
In the pay-TV area, the DFL offers 275 games from the 2nd division. This also includes 98 conferences. On free-TV, the summaries on Saturday, which are currently shown on “Sportschau”, are the most valuable package. There is only a small live offer for free-to-air television. Package E contains three first division games, one second division match, the relegation with four matches and the Supercup. The 33 games on Saturday evening from package G could also be broadcast in parallel on free and pay-TV in the future – as is currently the case with Sky and Sport1. The DFL is also selling six other highlight rights packages for freely accessible channels. There are further rights packages for audio and digital outdoor advertising.
Source: Stern
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