TV rights in Germany have been awarded for more than a billion euros per season from 2025 to 2029.
German professional football has secured a jackpot of 4.484 billion euros in revenue from TV rights for the German-speaking area over the 2025/2029 period, or 1.121 billion euros per season, the German League (DFL) announced on Thursday. ).
This is the third consecutive cycle of four seasons for which the DFL has obtained TV rights in excess of one billion euros per season. From 2017 to 2021, they amounted to 1.16 billion euros (4.64 billion in total). For the following period from 2021 to 2025, the auction in spring 2020 in the midst of the Covid pandemic and with the Bundesliga at a standstill, resulted in a slight drop to 1.10 billion euros (4.40 billion euros in total).
This agreement concerns Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Italian South Tyrol and the German-speaking part of eastern Belgium, and was presented on Thursday to the 36 1st and 2nd division clubs . It rises above the billion euro mark so coveted throughout Europe, and constitutes a success for the DFL with a slight increase of 2% compared to the previous cycle.
Contrast with other European countries
This figure goes against the trends observed recently in the marketing of television rights to sporting events. Fifa struggled to find a buyer for its new Club World Cup (June 15-July 13), finally opting for DAZN after refusing several offers deemed too weak for the Women's World Cup in 2023. UEFA also delayed to sell its rights for Euro-2024.
The French Ligue 1 negotiated its TV rights recently and saw its revenues collapse by almost a third, from EUR 726.5 million between 2016 and 2020 to EUR 500 million for the 2024/2029 period. In Italy, Serie A obtained EUR 900 million per season between 2024 and 2029, down 8% compared to the 2018/2021 period. The 306 live matches of a Bundesliga season will be broadcast as in the previous cycle by the pay channels Sky and DAZN, with a few changes at the margins.
DAZN, which has won rights for the second time, will broadcast the Saturday afternoon multiplex (and therefore that of the nine matches of the 34th and final day), which since its creation during the 2000/01 season belonged to Sky (formerly Premiere). Sky recovers the Sunday matches that DAZN had obtained between 2021 and 2025, the platform broadcasting the Bundesliga since 2019 when Eurosport sublicensed its rights from 2019 to 2021.