Germany's federal cartel office "approved plans to stop any single buyer from winning all the live television rights" for Bundesliga matches for the four seasons starting in '17, according to Harro ten Wolde of REUTERS.
The watchdog said in a statement that "it would be sufficient if the rights to show between 30 and 102 top flight Bundesliga matches out of a total of 306 available were awarded to an alternative buyer."
Andreas Mundt, the head of the competition watchdog, said, "For us it is important that the rules ensure that more than one bidder wins the rights. As long as only one party holds the live rights there is a risk that innovation, especially in the Internet-based offering, is limited."
This would mean that Sky Deutschland, part of Rupert Murdoch's Sky, "which won virtually all live broadcasting rights in the last auction, would not be able to repeat that level of success in the new auction, which is expected to be held before June." Sky "faced a similar policy in Britain, where it now shares English Premier League rights with telecoms group BT after one of the most high-profile broadcast auctions of recent times" (REUTERS, 4/11).
