German football association DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga has again surpassed the billion-euro mark for the awarding of the domestic Bundesliga media rights, exceeding the revenues generated from the previous tender.
For the 2025-26 to 2028-29 seasons, the 36 Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 clubs can expect revenue totalling €1.121 billion per season, according to DFL.This corresponds to a total revenue of €4.484 billion, an increase of around 2% compared to the previous rights cycle.
“The result of the tender underlines the unbroken popularity of German professional football, despite economically challenging times. Trust and unity within the league association have paid off. At the end of an intensive process, a very good and comprehensively secured financial result has now been achieved. The clubs now have planning security at a high financial level for another four years. For the fans, our future partners in both the pay and free-to-air markets will provide a high degree of consistency,” said DFL CEO Steffen Merkel.
In the area of pay-TV, there will continue to be two media partners. Live coverage of the Bundesliga’s single matches on Friday and Saturday (including the Saturday evening top match) will be broadcast by Sky Deutschland. The broadcaster will also show all Bundesliga 2 matches. DAZN will broadcast the Saturday conference (showing key moments from the 4-5 Bundesliga matches that kick off concurrently at 15:30 CET) and all Bundesliga single matches on Sunday. These rights were formerly held by Sky.
The outcome of the tender means that Sky will remain the Bundesliga’s main TV partner in the 2025-26 to 2028-29 seasons, showing 538 of the 617 Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 games live, 496 of them exclusively, corresponding with 80% of the total matches.
The Bundesliga 2’s Saturday evening match will also be broadcast free-to-air on RTL. Sat.1 has secured a comprehensive live rights package for free TV, including the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 season openers, the relegation play-offs and the Supercup.
ARD has secured the highlights (the first showing on free-to-air TV) of the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 matches on early Saturday evening and on Friday and Sunday evening, enabling the public broadcaster to keep its traditional Sportschau programme with Bundesliga coverage.
ZDF retains the rights to the second airing of the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 highlights on free-to-air TV on Saturday evenings, as well as the first showing of highlights of the Bundesliga’s top match on free-to-air TV. Sport1 will continue to have the right to broadcast highlights of the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 matches from Friday and Saturday on Sunday morning.
RTL acquired the pay-TV rights for highlight clips of Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 matches immediately after the end of the match. ZDF secured the rights package for free-to-air highlights of matches in both leagues from Monday. The newly introduced short clip rights from Monday go to Axel Springer. The audio rights were also awarded – ARD secured them in both available areas (FM and web/mobile).
