Three sources said that Germany's top football league will not be allowed to sell exclusive rights for live TV broadcasts after the country's competition watchdog insisted on a "no single buyer" rule for the imminent Bundesliga rights auction, according to Hübner & Ten Wolde of REUTERS.
While German football fans may have to subscribe to more than one pay-TV service to watch all live broadcasts in future, the rule "may yet drive up prices" in an auction the Bundesliga owner, the German Football League (DFL), "hopes to conclude early this summer."
DFL "voiced its opposition to the rule precluding any buyer from securing all the TV rights, one of the sources said, but the cartel office stood firm in an effort to foster competition."
Such a rule "could undermine the strategy of Sky Deutschland, which holds all the Bundesliga live broadcast rights" to the end of the '16-17 season, having paid €2.5B in '12 to trump a bid by Deutsche Telekom. There are a number of "potential buyers that could enter the fray."
Bertelsmann's RTL Group said that "it was interested in the Bundesliga rights in principle but declined to comment further."
RTL "secured the live broadcast rights for the German national football team's qualifying matches for the 2016 European Championship and the 2018 World Cup." A
Eurosport spokesperson said that "the company looks at all rights case by case but declined to elaborate."
German sports marketing media group Constantin Medien "is looking to participate in the auction," while ProSiebenSat.1 has said it would look at the available packages.
Deutsche Telekom "will wait for more details on how the auction will be structured before deciding whether to join the contest." The company "declined to comment." Vodafone, which owns cable provider Kabel Deutschland, "also declined to comment" (REUTERS, 2/2).
