BR Director Ulrich Wilhelm Worried About Increasing Sports Rights Fees

Bavarian public broadcaster BR Dir Ulrich Wilhelm stated he is "worried about the increasing rights fees for sports," according to Holger Rehm of SPONSORs. He "acknowledged the importance of sports for the public broadcaster but at the same time complained about rising rights fees." Wilhelm: "I see with worry that there is a competition for certain sports rights, which of course results in drastically increasing prices. We can't always compete." However, he said he is confident that ARD and ZDF "will continue to acquire important sporting rights in the future." Germany's public broadcaster "recently has lost out on certain sports rights," including Euro and World Cup qualifiers of the German national team and Olympic Games (SPONSORs, 11/11).