In the current tender for Bundesliga rights from the 2025/26 season, a subscription platform can once again exclusively acquire the rights to all matches.
The Federal Cartel Office approved the new rights allocation model of German football association DFL, which no longer contains a no-single-buyer rule. The competition authority stated that in view of the changed market conditions in the live broadcasting sector, it can tolerate this change for the upcoming licensing period.
“In recent years the market for live coverage of football matches has become much more dynamic due to the activities of companies such as DAZN, RTL and also Amazon. Most importantly, all providers now offer attractive internet-based broadcasting services as well. Encouraging competition for innovation in broadcasting the content was a particularly important goal of the no-single-buyer rule. This means that we can now accept DFL’s suggestion to waive the general rule that no single company may acquire the exclusive live broadcasting rights to Bundesliga matches in the upcoming auction,” said Andreas Mundt, President of the Federal Cartel Office.
The no-single-buyer rule, which has also been applied in markets including the UK and Italy, was first introduced in Germany in the 2016 Bundesliga rights tender in order to make the auction attractive to new competitors, for example from the streaming sector.
The details of the current tender, which covers the four seasons from 2025/26 to 2028/29, and the various rights packages can be found here. The rights allocation is expected to take place in Q2 2024.
