Sky Deutschland Takes Issue With Club-TV Offerings, Threatening Channel's Exclusivity

German pay-TV channel Sky Deutschland "has taken issue with several football clubs and their own club-TV offerings,"  according to Petra Schwegler of W&V. Sky pays an average of €486M ($662.5M) per season for exclusive Bundesliga TV rights until '17. As the league's "biggest source of money, Sky believes to have a certain privilege." Sky Chief Officer Sports Carsten Schmidt "has criticized the increasing appearance of club TV." He said, "We need access to the topics and the stars. Generally we have this access, but there are clubs that believe to keep this exclusivity for themselves. That's a step in the wrong direction." Several club-TV offerings "bother Sky, which currently has 3.7 million subscribers, and does not want to be recognized simply as a Bundesliga broadcast station." Schmidt: "We feel like that more and more clubs try to be hobby TV channels. ... We will take a very close look at it" (W&V, 5/30).