In the fight for rights in the Bundesliga, Sport1 faces a bitter defeat. RTL snatched the first second division match on Saturday evening, the specialist channel’s biggest audience success with sometimes more than a million viewers.
Sport1 trembled all the more in the face of a second big decision. Without the rights to the Sunday highlights of the Bundesliga, the “double pass” would also have been in danger of disappearing. Now came relief. “Package K” apparently remains the property of the supplier.
Bundesliga rights: Sport1 retains an important package
Sport1 is undergoing massive changes. In 2024, the station announced that it was aiming for a complete realignment of staff and structure. 50 percent of the channel was sold to a Turkish media company, the channels were abandoned or sold, many jobs were cut, and CEO Olaf Schröder and editor-in-chief Pit Gottschalk parted ways. And a lot has changed in the program too.
+++ Sky must watch helplessly – the pay TV giant has caught cold +++
But those responsible for the quotas remained the same. The second championship Saturday night game, premiered in 2021, turned out to be a golden opportunity for the sports channel. Alongside Sky, but on free-to-air TV, the flagship game has regularly attracted incredible viewing figures. But now the shock. The success of the rights package attracted larger providers, RTL snatched the package from Sport1 (and Sky). Here are the details.
“Double pass rights” remain intact
The award of “Package K” is therefore all the more important for Sport1. In addition to the flagship game, “Doppelpass” is the most famous and most important program on the thematic channel. Without the right to broadcast the highlights of the Bundesliga on Sunday morning, the cult speech would also have been threatened with disappearance. This would have been a major blow to the beleaguered broadcaster.
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But according to the “Digital Television” portal, Sport1 has once again been awarded the important rights to the Bundesliga. Good news for all DoPa fans. You can read more about the rights winners and losers here.
