International sports broadcaster, Sky has reportedly beaten DAZN to the largest package of live Bundesliga games, but will lose the rights to the popular whip-around ‘Konferenz’ show to the sports streaming company for the next rights cycle.
According to Bild, Sky has acquired rights package B, which consists of 196 live games per season. The bundle, which consists of all Saturday afternoon and Friday evening games, as well as the relegation play-offs, had initially been awarded to the pay-TV network, which led to a legal dispute between DAZN and the German Football League (DFL).
DAZN had accused the league of anticompetitive behaviour, having made a reportedly larger offer than Sky. An arbitration tribunal ruled in September that the league had to re-auction its rights package, with the process restarted last month.
Alongside package B, Sky is also said to have bought package C, which represents the marquee Saturday night games. It will mean that the pay-TV broadcaster will be able show both Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund up to ten times each season.
However, Bild reports that DAZN has managed to nab the rights to the Konferenz broadcast, which was invented by Sky 25 years ago. The programme allows the broadcaster the ability to switch back and forth between all Saturday afternoon games played simultaneously, meaning the viewer can watch the goals of every match in real time. DAZN is also said to be acquired package D, which consists of 79 games played on Sundays each campaign.
No financial details have been reported for any of the packages, which will take effect for the next four years from the 2025/26 season. The DFL’s current contract with Sky and DAZN is worth an average €1.1 billion (US$1.16 billion) per season.
The DFL is now set to auction off the free-to-air (FTA) packages for the Bundesliga, which includes the rights to the weekly highlights programme currently broadcast by ARD.
Meanwhile, the dpa news agency, as quoted by DWDL.de, has reported that FTA network RTL has secured the rights to the top game in Bundesliga 2, the country’s second division, taking over from Sport1. Kicker adds that Sky is expected to land the entirety of the second tier’s pay-TV rights.
SportsPro.com noted in a post on their website, the DFL has moved quickly to auction off its domestic rights for a second time, after the process was initially disrupted by DAZN’s legal complaint. Yet it appears that the arbitration procedure has not dampened the sports streaming company’s interest in the league’s rights, as it has seemingly bagged two packages, including the Konferenz broadcast, which has been a staple of Sky’s Bundesliga’s coverage.
The league has had to compromise to ensure DAZN wouldn’t be totally alienated from the process and lose interest in its rights going forward. Therefore, it has moved the Konferenz, which is popular among German soccer fans and ensures blanket coverage of Saturday afternoon games, to the streaming company. DAZN will hope that the move leads to an increase in subscribers, but it will also see its appeal slightly dented with fewer live games on offer.
Evidently, the DFL wanted to follow through on its initial allocation of package B, the largest bundle of live games, to Sky. Though it reportedly offered less than DAZN during the first auction, the Comcast-owned broadcaster is a long-time partner and retains a strong foothold among German households. There were also concerns around DAZN’s ability to pay its rights fees on time, an issue Sky seemingly does not have.
With a need to give clubs, fans and broadcasters certainty for the foreseeable future ahead of the current deals’ expiration, the DFL appears to have found a solution to satisfy both parties. The big question now is whether the league has secured an increase in its broadcast revenue, which remains its biggest source of income, in what is a challenging environment.
culled from sportspro.com
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