Record TV revenue for German Bundesliga

The German Football League (Deutsche Fussball Liga, DFL) yesterday announced the new television contract for the Bundesliga and 2.Bundesliga following an extraordinary general meeting of the 36 current clubs and capital companies of the Bundesliga and 2.Bundesliga in Frankfurt/Main. The new deal for the four seasons from 2013/14 to 2016/17 which will see an increase in revenues of 52% from around 1,6 Billion Euros to over 2,5 Billion Euros. That amounts to about 628 Million Euros per year on average, compared with 412 Million Euros per year of the current three year deal which ends next season.

The DFL maintained what it called the 'Classic' television coverage for the next cycle as pay TV channel Sky continues to show all matches of the Bundesliga and 2.Bundesliga live acquiring the pay-TV rights for cable, satellite, terrestrial and IPTV, as well as web TV and mobile phone distribution; which overall is more then in the current package which it had shared with the German Telekom.

The DFL also has maintained its free-to-air packages with ARD, ZDF and Sport1. ARD will continue to show Bundesliga from 18.30 onwards on Saturdays with the ZDF showing the late Saturday kick-off game in its Sportstudio program, while Sport1 can show highlights on Sunday morning as well as in its Doppelpass talkshow.

The ARD will furthermore continue to offer highlights of the Sunday matches and has also secured a seven-game package for live broadcast on free-to-air TV. This encompasses the opening games of the season and post-winter break restart, the promotion/relegation play-offs and the pre-season Supercup.

For the first time, the Axel Springer publishing house has secured utilisation rights from the DFL. From 2013-14 onwards, Axel Springer especially through its Bild.de platform will be able to offer clips from all the games on web TV and mobile phone networks. The clips will be available for a fee from an hour after the end of the games, and for free after midnight of the same day.

The DFL's CEO Christian Seifert said, "The agreement fuses traditional viewing patterns with innovative, forward-looking possibilities. Factoring-in the additional international revenues, the German professional game will be generating some 700 million euro annually from the central marketing of media rights in the years ahead. With that, the Bundesliga is consolidating its position as one of the world's most profitably marketable leagues. The clubs will have more financial leeway than ever before. And it is to that backdrop that we would additionally like to thank our media partners for their confidence."