DFL kicks off domestic tender process for Bundesliga broadcasting rights

Photo by Boris Streubel/Bundesliga/DFL via Getty Images

The Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) has started the tender process for the next round of domestic media rights to show live coverage of the Bundesliga.

The awarded contracts will run from season 2021-22 to 2024-25 and cover matches in the Bundesliga, Bundesliga 2, the Supercup and the relegation play-offs.

The rights cover Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and South Tyrol.

Sky Deutschland currently broadcasts 266 exclusive live Bundesliga matches per season with OTT sports service DAZN showing 40 matches.

The new rights packages, which are still to be confirmed, are likely to include additional free-to-air matches and a clause that forces a pay-TV broadcaster who picks up a certain number of packages to sub-lease some rights to an internet or mobile streaming service.

Tenders are invited for the following rights:

• Audiovisual rights, i.e. video rights, for live exploitation and delayed exploitation via satellite, terrestrial, cable/IPTV, web and mobile distribution channels
• Audio exploitation rights, i.e. rights to (live) radio reporting, including radio, web and mobile distribution channels
• Exploitation rights for digital advertising and information systems, i.e. rights to broadcast video via outdoor digital advertising spaces in public (“digital out-of-home”)

Highlights and clips packages are included in the tender.

All companies interested in acquiring the media exploitation rights can register to participate in the invitation to tender via https://www.dfl.de/de/aktuelles/ausschreibung2020.

The DFL will send the registered companies a “procedure letter” no earlier than 27 February.

The procedure letter will include the schedule and procedural rules for the implementation of the invitation to tender, especially the deadlines and criteria for admission to the invitation to tender, the procedure for submitting bids, and the criteria and procedure for the allocation of the advertised rights packages.

Currently, the German Federal Cartel Office is still performing the final review of the details of the allocation mechanisms. Once the Federal Cartel Office has completed its authoritative review of the marketing model underlying the invitation to tender, the DFL will send all admitted companies the invitation to tender documentation, most likely in March, which will also include the final structure of the rights packages and the other contractual provisions.

The award of the rights is expected to be made in May.