With the new season set to kick off on Thursday, the NFL is betting on free-to-air TV coverage and social media to reach and expand its German fan base. The league has seen a drastic increase in viewership after returning to free-TV last season through a three-year media deal with German media corp. ProSiebenSat.1. The NFL saw its viewership in the market increase by 350% year-on-year from last season, the league’s VP of Int’l Commercial Development Akash Jain said. The NFL also intends to put more shoulder programming on German TV to complement the live game broadcasts on Sat.1 and ProSieben Maxx, as well as online on ran.de. Ahead of this season, ProSiebenSat.1 secured the rights to HBO’s "Hard Knocks," and it will start airing a 30-minute pregame show every Sunday before the kickoff of the first game at 7pm. “Increasing the coverage surrounding the games is a priority for us,” Jain said. The ’16 NFL season will also air on Perform Group’s OTT service DAZN, which secured the pay-TV rights in the market. American football has a strong fan base in Germany dating back to the days of NFL Europe, which folded in ‘07. It is also the second-largest int'l market for the league’s online service NFL Game Pass, only trailing the U.K, Jain told SBD Global. The NFL did not reveal any financial figures or the number of German Game Pass subscribers. The league has been looking at playing a regular-season game in the country, and while it continues to evaluate that possibility, there are no immediate plans for a game. With games in the U.K. and Mexico this season and a potential season opener in China in ’18, Germany appears to have fallen off the priority list. Therefore the league is putting an increased emphasis on connecting with its German fans through TV and social media. On Tuesday, the NFL launched its German-language Twitter account, @NFLDeutschland. It is the first sign of the league’s partnership with sports marketing agency Lagardère Sports. The recently signed agreement aims to increase engagement across the NFL's various social and digital channels in the market. The NFL has an estimated 20 million fans in Germany.
