As of: March 28, 2024, 7:06 p.m
By: Stefan Schmid
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Football fans can watch Bundesliga games as usual for another season. After that, changes occur. Various models are conceivable.
Munich – If you currently want to watch all games in the 1st Bundesliga live, you need two subscriptions. DAZN and Sky share the rights. From the 2025/26 season onwards there could be upheavals. There will probably be certainty about this before the upcoming European Championships in Germany. Sky and DAZN are sure to be in the bidding competition again. This time with the possibility of a big winner or loser, and an additional competitor from private television.
Sky boss Mills: “Bundesliga rights are very important for us”
From mid-April, pay-TV providers can offer a total of six rights packages for broadcasting the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga. The DFL will then sell the broadcast rights for four seasons, starting with the 2025/26 season. For the new Sky boss Barny Mills – in office since last autumn – a fundamentally important phase. “The Bundesliga rights are very important for us,” the financial expert told
Welt am Sonntag
.
Mills does not want to provide any information about the exact goals of the pay channel. Just this much: they want to maintain “market leadership in sport”. But they don't want to take any financial risk in order to get all the Bundesliga games into their portfolio. “We will behave in a very disciplined and rational manner.” Fans should already know at the end of April whether they will continue to subscribe to Sky from 2025/26 or switch to a competitor. The rights auctions begin on April 15th.
This is where it will be decided how much money Sky will make in the upcoming rights allocation: the headquarters in Unterföhring in Munich. © IMAGO / Sven Simon
Broadcast monopoly for Bundesliga is possible again
In order to secure all Bundesliga games, Sky would have to purchase packages A, B, C and D offered by the DFL. This is now possible again. A decision by the Federal Cartel Office on the so-called “no single buyer rule” makes this possible. Now a single provider is allowed to purchase all packages in a competition again.
The DFL rights packages at a glance
Package A:
Saturday conference of the Bundesliga
Package B:
Single games Saturday 3:30 p.m. and Friday evening game in the Bundesliga, relegation games Bundesliga/2. Bundesliga
Package C:
Saturday evening game of the Bundesliga and Supercup
Package D:
Sunday Bundesliga games
Package E:
Free TV package for three Bundesliga games (1st, 17th and 18th matchdays), opening game 2nd Bundesliga, relegation Bundesliga/2. Bundesliga and relegation 2. Bundesliga/3. league
Package F:
All games in the 2nd Bundesliga except Saturday evening, relegation 2nd Bundesliga/3. league
Package G:
Saturday evening game 2nd Bundesliga (pay TV and/or free TV)
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What is new is that in 2025/26 even more Bundesliga games will take place on Sunday evenings at 7:30 p.m. Two teams will then meet each other 15 times per season. The reason given by the DFL was that it wanted to relieve the burden on teams playing internationally. Fans of the top teams will be particularly affected by the change.
In addition to the live packages, the highlight packages will also be awarded again. A total of seven of these are available for the free TV market. Another, which contains the clips after the final whistle, will be auctioned off to the pay-TV broadcasters.
DFL provides new insights and more data for broadcasters
Another innovation concerns the content that viewers see. There will be more insights starting next season. The DFL and clubs have approached the broadcasters who have requested this. Specifically, this means more interviews and more pictures from behind the scenes. However, dressing room and trainer interviews during the break remain taboo. Fans may not like the fact that the portals want to take stronger action against popular account sharing. (
sh
)