The sale of television rights to the soccer bundesliga It is in the crucial phase. The German Football League sent the tender documents to the media a few days ago. And they contain some complicated and sometimes sophisticated details, especially the ARD with its “sports show” and at the same time reduces the value of the free TV summary on Saturday afternoons.
DFL CEO Steffen Merkel stated about the discussions about the ARD sports classic that arise with each tender that “there can be no guarantee of existence for any partner or format.” This is due to the “nature of the tender”, as he highlighted, among other things, during a presentation at the end of January.
The ARD sports program is in danger of extinction: Sky and Dazn may even pay more for it
What is problematic for ARD is Package I of the tender, which is available in two versions for the four seasons starting in 2025/2026, called Compact and Classic. In one of these, the highlights would only be shown on open television from 7:15 p.m. This compact model with late summary on free TV would adapt to pay channels. The crucial detail of the tender: payment providers can indirectly subsidize the end of the “Sportschau”.
Buyers of paid packages with Saturday's matches will not be able to purchase the free TV package I with the summary from 7:15 p.m. themselves. But they can pay a subsidy. Theoretical example: a pay channel such as Sky or Dazn contributes 30 million, so the purchase price of 40 million for a free-to-air television provider such as RTL or ProSiebenSat.1 adds up to a total income of 70 million for the DFL.
Cartel office sees possible “deterioration in quality” and still allows package
The Federal Cartel Office approved it last week. The authority wrote in its own language that Variant I Compact allows payment providers to “express their competitive preferences regarding the design of featured reports by adding surcharges to their own offer.” In other words: the additional payment indirectly increases the exclusivity and value of Saturday's live rights.
According to information from the German Press Agency, ARD is only interested in the variant called I Klassik. This allows summaries between 6:00 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. The “Sportschau” would remain in its current form. According to broadcasting circles, a short version from 19.15 to 20.15 is not an option for the first one.
The Federal Cartel Office considers Package I Compact “a certain deterioration in quality” for football fans. “But at the same time the offer for the end customer is improved, because in this scenario the program can also be available from the end of the program in a multimedia library.” .
In any case, Package I has lost value in the long version of open TV compared to the previous tender. There are two reasons for this. On the one hand, the number of relief matches for the participants in the European Cup on Sundays at 7:30 p.m. increases from ten to fifteen per season, i.e. on the respective Saturdays at 3:30 p.m. there are only four matches instead of five .
In the future it will also apply to Bayern and BVB: “They don't play that often on Saturday afternoons.”
On the other hand, a further loss of value occurs due to considerably expanded collection rights. This means that pay TV providers can choose even more games for certain days and times. These pay channel selection options primarily apply to Saturday 6:30 pm matches, as well as Friday and Sunday matches. In this way, the most popular clubs among viewers and broadcasters play as Bayern Munich and even more rarely Borussia Dortmund on Saturday at 3:30 p.m., in extreme cases only eight times a season. Which also reduces the value of Payment Package A with the conference.
ARD sports coordinator Axel Balkausky, who currently does not wish to comment, said in December about Bayern and BVB: “Unfortunately, they don't play that often on Saturday afternoons.” In the previous season, the “Sportschau” was only able to watch excerpts 14 times Show the matches of Bayern and Dortmund 18 times on Saturday afternoon. From the 2025/2026 season there will probably be even fewer, regardless of whether it is a classic or compact version.