The DFL has taken steps this season – the first year in a new domestic rights cycle of four years – to bring rights holders better access to players, exciting new presentation positions, and more content.
The planning for each new rights cycle begins three years before the first game of that season kicks off, explains Dominik Scholler, the DFL’s vice president of product management and innovation: “Well in advance to the start of the rights cycle – we start with the first conversations around three years in advance to the rights cycle – we sit down with all relevant parties – the media partners – to understand what their wishes are, what their plans are editorial-wise, but also from a technology perspective, [what they want].
“What is always very important for us is to understand the fan perspective; we do that with research and creating personas to try to understand who are the followers of Bundesliga, and what do they expect to see. Also a very important stakeholder [in this process] are the clubs, who of course also contribute a lot to the media product in the end.
“Usually one and a half years before the right cycle kicks off, we do all the fine-tuning and then the rights are tendered at one year in advance. As soon as we send out all the tender documents, we also need to provide all the details on what they also can expect from the media product.”
Getting closer to the action and having a more unfiltered style of content was flagged up by rights holders as important for this rights cycle, says Scholler, speaking to SVG Europe. “This time the media partners told us that proximity and authenticity is very important for them. That’s also the feedback we got from fans.
“I would say it’s maybe also a logical consequence of that trend that we have seen in the past of all the sports documentaries, where you really get behind the scenes, so the main demand we got was basically [to see] if that [behind the scenes content] is also possible in a live environment. That’s why – at least from a storytelling side – the main changes that we [made to the rights] is that we thought about how we can get closer to the game and provide these insights and work on a concept.”
Strong foundations
The DFL has leaned into the idea of providing more access through the creation of ‘tent pole’ matches in Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2. These are key games in the season where additional access is viewed as being useful to rights holders.
Scholler explains: “We have established the concept of what we call tent pole matches. So there will be 15 matches in Bundesliga and five in Bundesliga 2 where we provide additional access. These are usually the biggest matches, like the SuperCup, or if Bayer plays against Dortmund, or a match with an awards ceremony where we then ask the clubs to provide additional access.
“This access is basically a full spectrum of additional things that we can do, for example, we can put a camera in the team bus so that we can follow the bus drive to the stadium and see the fans waiting outside on the streets and cheering. But we also implemented, and I think in Premier League that was already established, a bus arrival interview with a player in the starting lineup, and locker room footage or footage from the players area.
“Media partners have the opportunity to do stand ups from the locker room, well in advance of the match, and they can also do the opening of their programming on the pitch, where the reporter and experts can go onto the pitch; usually it’s around the centre line where they can then open the programming there,” Scholler continues.
“After the match – specially for the tent pole matches – we allow them also to have pitch flash interviews, which is also a concept that we have seen in the Champions League Final, for example; they can enter the pitch immediately with a reporter camera and do an interview within two minutes after final whistle, which is great because you have all the emotions, all the excitement on the pitch. They can be used immediately in the live programming.”
Interviews are also now allowed in the players area off the pitch, which, says Scholler, “also looks nicer and more authentic than if you just do it in a flash zone or mixed zone in that high sheen context; if you have the team player’s areas, that’s usually a little bit more personalised, so additional nice footage”.
Continues Scholler: “[For tent pole matches] we have 20 cameras, for example, for one of the Sunday matches. But the broadcaster on Sunday can choose which of the matches should actually be produced with 20 cameras.”
Social media eyeballs
As part of the additional access provided through tent pole matches, social media content is included. Bundesliga 2 clubs are obliged to provide the additional social media access for their tent pole matches. Meanwhile, Bundesliga has provided standard social media reporter access for several years, but with the new DFL concept, the Bundesliga teams have a voluntary opt-in to allow further access, choosing what can be added to the regular access and what will remain off limits. This includes social media reporters getting close to the players on the pitch after the game, interacting with fans from pitchside, and following the teams into their locker rooms.
Scholler adds that although Bundesliga 2 clubs do have to offer social media reporters thew additional access, he says they have seen its benefits and are embracing it.
“I really liked the approach from Bundesliga 2, because in the end they said, “well, we understand, and obviously the focus is usually more on Bundesliga and the superstars there, but there are so many things that we can also offer and we are fine to open some doors that were not possible in the past and allow that access”. And for us, that’s a very interesting test and playing field. In the end it’s giving additional eyeballs on Bundesliga 2 clubs, which otherwise they would not have. They can address younger, more digital audiences with [this kind of content], and I think that is super helpful.”
On what the Bundesliga 2 clubs are now offering on tent pole matches, Scholler says: “For Bundesliga 2 we have gone one step further and we have dedicated social media reporters who follow the players with a smartphone, so that we also have a 9:16 production, which is then also uploaded immediately to our social media matchday feed platform to provide the digital channels with content.
“Also here for Bundesliga 2, social media reporters are allowed to enter the pitch, and they can go with the players to the fans and see how they are celebrating with them, or if the teams huddle after the match, this can then also be filmed by the social media teams.”
Proximity and authenticity
The result of the added access rights through the tent pole matches, just a few weeks into the season, is already apparent. Scholler says: “You can really see that proximity and authenticity, and the broadcasters are using the footage a lot. For example, Sky [Deutschland] even extended their pre-match rundown [on 22 August], which increased by 30 minutes because they said, “well there are so many great opportunities with the standups in the locker rooms and the opening of the show on the pitch and the bus arrival interviews,” and they wouldn’t have fit that in their normal rundown. So they started 30 minutes earlier so they had enough time basically to use all these elements.”
The ref cam, which is now a standard camera for the tent pole matches and is being used in various other matches, is also going down well. It was used at the SuperCup and the season opening match for both Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2.
Scholler says: “One thing that works extremely well is the ref cam, which we also use now for all the tent pole matches; we are planning to use it up to 50 times during the season. It’s just a great additional perspective. You can use it for replays from the referee perspective, and that’s super interesting and also supporting the idea of being very close to the action.”
While the ref cam is only video at the moment, audio is coming. Scholler notes: “That’s the next step we are working on. “He adds: “I know for the season opening match, we actually recorded the audio, but it was just not shown in the world feed, but we created some clips afterwards. So that is the first steps in the right direction.”
Scholler says: “We are still now figuring out what are the live opportunities [for ref cam], but we can put it in the replay packages, and they really come fast, so often it’s like the second replay or so where we can provide the ref cam perspective.”
He adds that the referees are happy to wear ref cam, which he did not expect: “The referees are actually very supportive. I was really also positively surprised, but they like the idea they it also from the refereeing department, so there is really a great collaboration with them.”
