German subscription broadcaster Sky Deutschland has acquired the TV rights for the World Men’s Handball Championship 2015 in Qatar and will broadcast all 88 games exclusively in Germany and Austria.
The rights contract of which financial details have not been disclosed also contains the internet, IPTV and mobile TV rights.
Sky will show all matches of the German and Austrian national teams as well as selected further games as part of the sports subscription package for its subscribers. The tournament’s other games – more than 50 – will be offered free of charge to all handball fans as internet live streams on Sky’s website Sky.de with English-language commentary.
The Handball World Cup will commence on January 15, 2015 with the opening games between host Qatar and Brazil.
Originally, German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF wanted to show the tournament, but failed to reach an agreement with the rights holder due to a dispute regarding the broadcasters’ unencrypted satellite transmissions on Astra (19.2° East) and Eutelsat Hot Bird (13° East) which enable reception outside Germany.
With Sky Deutschland, the problem doesn’t exit as the satellite signal is encrypted and smartcards are only distributed to households in Germany and Austria. The internet live-stream will also not be available in foreign countries.
