German Bundesliga announces increase in new TV rights deal

The Bundesliga on Thursday announced a new domestic TV rights deal worth 1.121 billion euros per season ($1.185 billion), a slight increase on the previous value and the second biggest in European football behind England’s Premier League.

The annual amount in the four-year deal, which will start in the 2025-26 season, is worth around two percent more per season, or 21 million euros, than the previous arrangement.

Calling the deal “a huge success” and “an outstanding result”, DFL chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke said “it shows the league remains very attractive” at a press conference on Thursday in Frankfurt.

The deal is the third straight rights arrangement with an annual value above one billion euros.

Some within German football were reportedly concerned the value of the deal could drop, after declining domestic TV revenues in France and Italy.

The deal is the second most valuable domestic deal in the major European football leagues, ahead of Spain’s La Liga, but remains dwarfed by the English Premier League.

The Premier League’s upcoming domestic rights deal, struck in December 2023 and which will run for four years from the 2025-26 campaign, is valued at 2.02 billion euros per season (£1.675 billion), roughly double that of the German Bundesliga.

The Premier League’s international rights bring close to two billion euros extra, significantly larger than the 250 million euro value of the German Bundesliga’s international rights.

La Liga’s domestic rights deal brings in 990 million euros annually, just below that of Germany’s new deal, although Spanish football receives an additional 900 million per season in international rights.

The rights auction needed to be restarted after an arbitration ruling in a dispute between the DFL and DAZN in September.

DAZN had taken action after their bid, which they claimed was higher than that of Sky, was not accepted, with the tribunal ordering the process to start again.

The auction process relates to German-speaking coverage in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, with the international rights kept separate.

The major change for domestic viewers will be a switch in Saturday’s coverage, which features all 3:30pm matches simultaneously, from Sky to DAZN.