By David Gold
April 18 – Sky Deutschland has won the rights to show Bundesliga football live for four years starting from 2013, in a deal worth €2.5 billion (£2 billion/$3.3 billion).
The deal covers 612 matches a season, and as a result German clubs will receive €34 million (£28 million/$45 million) per season, an increase on the current €23 million (£19 million/$30 million).
It closes the gap on the English Premier League, which currently has a three year deal worth £1.8 billion ($2.9 billion /€2.2 billion) with Sky and ESPN, and Sky Deutschland will cover Bundesliga rights on all media platforms.
The television rights will help German teams comply with the UEFA Financial Fair Play rules, which restrict teams to making losses of no more than £40 million ($63 million/€45 million) over this year and next, and will eventually force teams to break even.
Sky, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, beat Deutsche Telecom to the rights, and it is a significant boost in a country where football is by far the most popular sport, arguably more than in any other major football nation in Europe – approximately 20 per cent of Sky Deutschland customers are signed up to receive its football, sport and movies packages.
It also lays down a significant marker as Al-Jazeera continues to make strides into major pay television football markets, and is another sign of the improvement in German football both on and off the field.
Germany has reached the semi-finals of the last three World Cups, and the final of the last European Championships in 2008.
From next season, the country will also have four teams in the UEFA Champions League after they overtook Italy in the UEFA coefficient rankings.
Off the pitch Bundesliga is the best attended league in Europe and made profits of €52.5 million (£44 million/$69 million) in 2010-2011.
Reinhard Rauball, the President of the Bundesliga, told journalists in Frankfurt: “Today’s decision is a quantum leap for the Bundesliga, it is a good day for German football.”
Chief executive of the Bundesliga, Christian Seifert (pictured), said: “We are convinced of the attractiveness of our product,” and added that the investment was “beyond our expectations”.
“The results show that we are not wrong in our assessment,” he said.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, chairman of Bayern Munich and the head of the European Club Association (ECA) said: “This increase will help our clubs become more competitive when they play in international competitions like the Champions League and Europa League.
“The rise of the TV contract in the present third sum is a milestone in the history of the Bundesliga, [and] the result of the very positive development of the league in recent years.”
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