ZDF Invests $447M For Sports Rights In '14, $222M For Olympics, World Cup, Athletics

German public broadcaster ZDF "has drastically increased its sports budget for '14, as it will be a year full of sporting events," according to Sidney Schering of QUOTENMETER. The expenditures on sports rights and broadcasts by the public broadcasters "are regularly a big discussion point of TV observers." While some industry experts say that sports investments "are getting out of control," others say that "there's still not enough sports on the public broadcasters." At least for the coming year, ZDF "seems to agree with the latter." The broadcaster will invest €330M ($447M) in sports programming in '14. The 2014 Sochi Winter Games, the FIFA World Cup and the European Athletics Championships alone will swallow up €164M ($222M) of ZDF's budget. The remaining budget will be used for the channel's usual sports coverage, which has a price tag of €147M ($199M) this year (QUOTENMETER, 11/20).