The German Football Association (DFB) is launching a new pay-TV channel, DFB.TV, in a joint venture with Sportainment Media Group, targeting Germany’s estimated 35 million football fans.
The linear 24/7 service will go live on 22 May 2026, on the eve of the DFB Cup final, with live coverage from the event marking its debut, unveiled DFB.TV Managing Director Gisbert Wundram in an interview with Broadband TV News. “We are creating a new media home for football fans in Germany. DFB.TV has the potential to become an important player in the country’s sports media landscape,” he said.
The channel will feature live coverage, reports, interviews and background programming across the breadth of German football. This includes the junior national teams, the amateurs’ finals, Futsal, Beach Soccer and DFB eCup. Highlights and summaries from the DFB Cup, the 3. Liga, the Google Pixel Women’s Bundesliga and the national teams round off the schedule, alongside historical retrospectives and classic matches. In addition to the linear channel, content will be available on demand
DFB.TV will also accompany Germany’s national teams across training camps, international fixtures and tournaments. During the FIFA World Cup 2026, the channel plans on-site coverage from the team base camp and the “German House of Soccer”, including the live broadcast of all press conferences and behind-the-scenes reporting.
The aim is to broaden the range of football content available to fans and show competitions and stories that currently receive limited or no television exposure, bringing the full scope of German football closer to audiences, said Wundram. He stressed that DFB.TV is designed as a complementary offering to the association’s existing broadcast rights partners rather than a competitor.
The venture will be led by a three-member management team comprising Kay Dammholz, Director Media Rights at DFB, and Gisbert Wundram and Bendix Eisermann, Managing Directors at Sportainment. The Hamburg-based media company brings operational expertise to the project, having launched and managed multiple sports channels including Sportdigital Fußball and Sportdigital 1+.
DFB.TV will be funded through a combination of pay-TV subscriptions and advertising, with advertising sales handled by Publicis Groupe under a broader strategic partnership covering marketing and monetisation.
The channel will be distributed across cable, satellite, IPTV and OTT with confirmed carriage at launch including Vodafone’s nationwide cable network, DTH satellite distribution on Astra (19.2° East) via HD+, TV streaming service Zattoo and sports streamer DAZN. Talks are ongoing with further platform operators including Deutsche Telekom’s MagentaTV and Sky Deutschland. The goal is to achieve universal technical availability in Germany at launch, said Wundram.
Besides the distribution partners, DFB.TV will also be offered via the stand-alone app DFB.TV+, developed with technology provider Deltatre. DFB.TV+ will be available to consumers for €5.99 per month or €59.99 annually with the subscription including access to the linear 24/7 channel and the on-demand library. The app will also be offered in Austria and Switzerland.
