Football fans will also be able to see the Bundesliga highlights in the “Sportschau” in the future. The ARD is allowed to follow a report from the BildAccording to the newspaper, the timely summaries show until at least 2029. The public broadcaster has secured the necessary media rights for four seasons and can continue to offer the first moving images on free TV on Saturday, it is said. The ARD initially did not comment on this when asked.
The “Sportschau” has been one of the most important football programs in the country for decades and, since the 2003/04 season, has once again had exclusive rights to the league’s highlights on free-to-air television. An average of 3.845 million people watched the “Sportschau” on Saturday from 6:30 p.m. in the 2023/24 season, as ARD announced in May. That was actually an increase compared to the previous year, even though TV consumption overall fell. The traditional show regularly has a market share of more than 20 percent.
:Confusing for the audience – but good for the clubs
The Saturday conference of the Bundesliga moves to Dazn, Sky broadcasts on Friday evening and keeps the second league. What is already known about the allocation of TV rights.
It was already known at the weekend what would happen next on pay TV. Starting next season, fans will also need two subscriptions for live Bundesliga games. The popular conference call on Saturday will be shown on Dazn in the future, as will the games on Sunday. In the future, Sky will broadcast the game on Friday evening as well as all games on Saturday individually – including the top game at 6.30 p.m. The auction ends with the sale of further free TV rights on Wednesday.
After Bild-Information is also already clear that the German Football League (DFL) can keep its income stable. The proceeds from the auction for the four seasons from 2025/26 to 2028/29 are expected to be more than one billion euros per season. On Thursday, those responsible for the club will be informed about the results at a meeting in Frankfurt/Main. Given the difficult market situation, reaching the previous mark was considered a success in the run-up to the auction – although the current 1.1 billion corresponds to around 100 million less compared to the previous cycle.
Even before the auction restarted, it was clear that German professional football (in addition to the current 1.1 billion nationally and almost 250 million internationally) would not come close to the English Premier League (two billion nationally plus two billion internationally). Nevertheless, the clubs will certainly be satisfied with stability in income. Since the proceeds from previous sales in Italy and France have declined, the German clubs feared a similar scenario.
