TV rights reassigned
Big changes to Bundesliga broadcasts
Updated 11/30/2024 – 10:38 p.mReading time: 2 min.
The German Football League is selling its television rights. The first results become public. The fans will have to adjust on Saturday.
The German Football League (DFL) has reassigned the live broadcast rights for the Bundesliga from the coming season. As the “Bild” newspaper and the German Press Agency report, there are big changes: The pay-TV broadcaster Sky is losing the broadcasting rights for the popular Bundesliga conference on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. for the first time – this will move to DAZN.
The streaming service will therefore take over the transmission of a total of 161 games, which are traditionally summarized in the conference on Saturday. So far, Sky has had these in its program. The broadcaster, on the other hand, will take over the games on Friday evening from DAZN and broadcast all games live as individual games on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. In total, this package includes 196 games per season and remains the most comprehensive rights package.
For the fans it means an unfavorable scenario. If you want to watch both an individual game and the Bundesliga conference, you will have to get a paid subscription to Sky and DAZN in the future.
The top game on Saturday evening at 6:30 p.m. remains on Sky – and can be shown up to ten times per season in the future with participation from top German clubs such as FC Bayern or Borussia Dortmund. According to the report, DAZN also retains the broadcast rights for Sunday games. The new agreements apply until 2029.
The DFL and Sky did not initially comment, nor did DAZN. The results of the auction are to be officially announced on Thursday after the DFL general meeting.
The DFL has been auctioning off the TV rights for the Bundesliga since Monday; in the first week it was mainly about the pay-TV games, which make up by far the largest part of the Bundesliga’s revenue. The DFL offer consists of a total of 15 TV packages for the 2025/26 to 2028/29 seasons, each of which will be awarded to the highest bidding broadcasters and media companies.
This is the second attempt at the auction, after the first attempt in April had to be canceled after just one day. After the heated dispute between the DFL and the internet broadcaster DAZN over a bank guarantee for the award of the rights pact B with 196 live games, the German Institution for Arbitration (DIS) decided: The award made at the time to the pay-TV broadcaster Sky is ineffective . But DAZN didn’t get the contract either. The DIS verdict: The auction begins again.
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