SportA, the sports rights agency for German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF, has agreed a two-year sublicensing deal with telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom for rights to the Basketball Bundesliga, the top division of the sport in Germany.
The deal with Deutsche Telekom, the Bundesliga’s rights-holder, covers the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons of the league.
Under the terms of the agreement, ZDF will broadcast the season-ending BBL-Pokal competition live. The contract also grants ARD and ZDF the right to show highlights of the Bundesliga in their news and sports magazine programming.
The latest agreement comes after German sports broadcaster Sport1 last month acquired free-to-air rights to the Bundesliga after agreeing a two-year deal with Deutsche Telekom.
Sport1 has broadcast Bundesliga games since 2009 and its new deal with Deutsche Telekom will take in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons.
Sport1 will show 34 games from the regular season of the league and 14 games from the playoffs. This total includes two clashes from the finals – to be mutually agreed with Deutsche Telekom before the start of the season – and the first two games of the respective playoff fixtures in the quarter and semi-finals.
In June, Deutsche Telekom agreed a four-year deal for the media rights to the Bundesliga. The agreement, which includes both national and international rights, commences from the 2014-15 season and runs through to the 2017-18 campaign.
Deutsche Telekom will exploit the rights through its IPTV platform Entertain and has promised to broadcast all games live – a first for the league. All live games broadcast by Sport1 will also be available simultaneously on the platforms of Deutsche Telekom.