Football fans are patient people. They stand for hours in the blazing sun, in the waterfalls of Dortmund or in the beer queues on the fan miles. They sit on plastic folding chairs, beer benches or, if in doubt, not at all. They don’t want much. Except: to watch football.
And a lot of people wanted that in Turkey’s round of 16 match against Austria. After all, there were two teams playing that had impressed in the preliminary round with passionate and attacking football. And for whom reaching the round of 16 in a European Championship is not a given.
But above all, Turkey was the team that many people refer to as the second home team. A narrative that has been present since the friendly match against the German national team last November in Berlin, when the Turkish fans pushed their team to victory. Three million people with Turkish roots live in Germany.
Anyone who wasn’t in the stadium or at the public viewing had the opportunity to watch the game via the pay service Magenta TV, which belongs to Telekom. Or rather: should have had the opportunity. Subjunctive.
For many, the screen remained black, not even neon pink was visible. Hundreds of people complained on social media that they could not access the stream despite having already purchased subscriptions. Those who decided at short notice to take out a monthly subscription for ten euros before the game started (9 p.m.) received an error message or were redirected to a queue in which 44,000 people were waiting to finally take out a subscription and watch the game. And even those who saw something were dissatisfied: the stream was choppy and pixelated, users complained.
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Magenta TV reacted: Soon after the game started, the game could be streamed while waiting for a subscription. A generous gesture, you might think. After all, hardly anyone will have taken out a subscription like that.
Problems with the Magenta stream already occurred during the preliminary round
But above all, it is a major admission that shows that those responsible are aware of how much went wrong with the football broadcast.
For the first time, four broadcasters in Germany are sharing the broadcasting rights for this European Championship: ARD, ZDF, RTL and Magenta TV. Only Magenta TV is showing all the games, the other broadcasters have bought the rights for parts of the matches from Telekom. Five games, however, were shown exclusively on Magenta TV.
This affected four games in the preliminary round: two from the German European Championship group (Hungary – Switzerland, Scotland – Hungary) as well as the games Slovenia – Serbia and Denmark – Serbia. And even then the stream was jerky and choppy for many people.
One could have expected that the problems would have been resolved by the fifth exclusive match, the round of 16 between Austria and Turkey. If only to prevent further discontent. There was already a lot of discontent anyway, because most of the matches were also shown on free TV. Many football fans couldn’t understand why Turkey’s match in particular wouldn’t be shown.
Magenta TV is silent
Some blamed the public broadcasters for this, accusing them of liking to tell the story of the second home team but not caring about that team’s fans.
It is unclear whether Magenta TV even offered the rights for the round of 16 match between Turkey and Austria and under what conditions. In the negotiations between the broadcasters, confidentiality was agreed as to who had secured which games and under what conditions. The Sportschau also points this out on Instagram under the comment of an angry follower: “It was already decided in advance that we would be allowed to broadcast a maximum of 17 games of the European Championship. Unfortunately, we cannot comment comprehensively on the issue due to contractually agreed confidentiality.”
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Magenta TV is also silent. There is also no direct mention of the jerky or non-functioning streams. On Instagram, the broadcaster simply writes that the response has “far exceeded” expectations and that the game is therefore being made available on hold. The post was published around 10 p.m.
The first goal of the game had been scored less than an hour earlier. Many fans would have loved to see it. Those who paid for it would have loved to see it even more.
Football fans are patient people. They stand for hours in the blazing sun, in the waterfalls of Dortmund or in the beer queues on the fan miles. They sit on plastic folding chairs, beer benches or, if in doubt, not at all. They don’t want much. Except: to watch football.
And a lot of people wanted that in Turkey’s round of 16 match against Austria. After all, there were two teams playing that had impressed in the preliminary round with passionate and attacking football. And for whom reaching the round of 16 in a European Championship is not a given.
