The FIFA World Cup "is once again in the sole hands" of German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF, according to SPIEGEL ONLINE. For the first time since '98, ARD and ZDF "will broadcast all games of the World Cup next year." The sublicensing of individual games "has reportedly failed." After Friday's draw, the public broadcasters "divided the 64 World Cup matches between them." ZDF "will start its World Cup coverage with the broadcast of the opening game." It will also show one group-stage match featuring the German squad. ARD "will live broadcast the final and air two group games of the German team." In '02, German private TV channel Sat.1 "aired several World Cup matches." RTL "showed a total of 17 matches during the 2006 World Cup and games from South Africa in '10." For next year's tournament in Brazil, the private-TV channels "were unable to reach an agreement with the public broadcasters or simply were not interested." Pay-TV network Sky, which aired World Cup games from '02-10, "also will not broadcast any matches from Brazil" (SPIEGEL ONLINE, 12/11).
