The ARD “Sportschau” shows summaries of the Bundesliga every Saturday. This week it will be decided whether this will continue to be the case in the future. A crucial detail of the rights tender could be the show’s undoing.
The second week of the TV rights auction for the Bundesliga is about the future of “Sportschau”. The ARD classic could be canceled if another free TV channel offers more money than the public broadcaster. Or if a pay-TV broadcaster uses a special clause that the German Football League has built into the tender for the four seasons from 2025/2026.
Package I with the summaries of the first division games on Saturday afternoon is available in two versions. These are called compact and classic. In the case of classical music, highlights could be seen on free-to-air television from 6 p.m. – analogous to the current “Sportschau”. At Kompakt the highlights would only be visible from 7:15 p.m. The compact model with the later summary on free TV would meet the interests of pay channels.
The crucial detail of the tender for the compact model: Pay providers can indirectly subsidize the end of the “Sportschau”. The trick: Pay channels are not allowed to buy the free TV package I with the summary from 7.15 p.m. for pay broadcast – but they can pay a subsidy.
Theoretical example: A pay channel like Sky or DAZN contributes 40 million so that the pure purchase price of a free TV provider of 30 million for the DFL adds up to a total income of 70 million. That doesn’t seem very likely. But it is possible.
DFL refuses to guarantee existence
The DFL wants to put ARD under pressure with the compact model. Managing director Steffen Merkel had said about the discussions about the ARD sports classic that arise with every tender that “there can be no guarantee of existence for any partner or format”. This is due to the “nature of the tender”.
The Federal Cartel Office has approved Variant I Compact. It enables pay providers “to express their competitive preferences with regard to the design of highlight reporting by adding surcharges to their own offering”. In other words: the additional payment allows the exclusivity and value of the pay rights for Saturday to be increased in a detour.
The ARD is apparently only interested in the variant called I Klassik. This would keep the “Sportschau” in its current form. A short version from 7:15 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. is out of the question for the first, according to broadcaster circles.
dpa/SUF
