December 6 – The DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga has beaten its budget with its latest media rights tender, surpassing the €1 billion mark per season for German-language broadcasting.
For the 2025-26 to 2028-29 seasons, the 36 Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 clubs will share annual revenues of €1.121 billion, amounting to a total of €4.484 billion.
This marks a 2% increase over the previous cycle, reinforcing the Bundesliga’s status as the league with the second-strongest domestic media contract in global football.
“The result of the tender underlines the unbroken popularity of German professional football, despite economically challenging times. Trust and unity within the league association have paid off. At the end of an intensive process, a very good and comprehensively secured financial result has now been achieved. The clubs now have planning security at a high financial level for another four years. For the fans, our future partners in both the pay and free-to-air markets will provide a high degree of consistency,” said DFL CEO Steffen Merkel.
“We would like to thank all media partners for their strong commitment to our leagues. Together, the clubs and the DFL will justify this trust in the coming years by working even more closely with our partners and providing them with the best possible support in achieving their goals.”
In the realm of pay-TV, two primary media partners will continue to hold rights. Sky will broadcast live coverage of Bundesliga matches on Fridays and Saturdays, including the high-profile Saturday evening fixture, alongside all Bundesliga 2 games.
DAZN, meanwhile, will air the Bundesliga’s Saturday conference – covering live key moments from the 4-5 matches kicking off simultaneously at 3:30pm CET – and all Sunday Bundesliga matches.
This is particularly significant seeing as the DFL put the auction for the Bundesliga’s domestic broadcast rights on hold after DAZN complained of unfair treatment. The two entities have been embroiled in a legal battle, which led to the DFL being ordered to re-auction the Bundesliga’s domestic broadcast rights for the 2025–2029 seasons after an arbitration tribunal partially upheld DAZN’s lawsuit.
DFL CEO Marc Lenz added: “The financial security achieved with this result is a key foundation for the positive development of the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2. From this position of strength, we must tackle the economic, sporting and political challenges – and continue to develop our leagues together with the 36 clubs and make them fit for the future.”
The rest of the media rights deals are as follows:
- Bundesliga 2’s Saturday evening match will be shown free-to-air by RTL.
- 1 has secured a wide-ranging free-to-air live rights package, which includes the season openers for both leagues, the relegation play-offs, and the Supercup.
- For highlights, ARD will provide the first free-to-air broadcast of Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 matches on early Saturday evenings and on Friday and Sunday evenings. That being said, ZDF retains rights to the second airing of highlights on Saturday evenings and the first showing of highlights for the Saturday top match.
- Sport1 will continue its Sunday morning broadcast of Friday and Saturday match highlights.
- RTL has obtained pay-TV rights for immediate post-match highlight clips of matches from the two leagues. For free-to-air highlights on Mondays, ZDF retains its position, while newly introduced Monday short clip rights have been secured by Axel Springer.
- Audio rights have been awarded to ARD for both FM and web/mobile coverage.
The DFL say that the tender process for all rights was conducted in an open, transparent, and non-discriminatory manner, in agreement with the Federal Cartel Office. Revenue distribution plans will be determined by the DFL Executive Committee.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at moc.l1734882695labto1734882695ofdlr1734882695owedi1734882695sni@g1734882695niwe.1734882695yrrah1734882695