German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF, along with the German Handball Association (DHB), have said they will step up their efforts to ensure future major handball tournaments are broadcast on free-to-air television in the country.
The 2015 men’s World Championship concluded in Qatar on Sunday, with Germany eliminated at the quarter-final stage. However, ARD and ZDF only secured rights for extracts of coverage from the tournament.
Under the deal with pay-television broadcaster beIN Media Group, the tournament’s global rights distribution partner, clips of games were shown in news and sports programmes. ARD and ZDF pulled out of talks to acquire live rights for the tournament late last year before pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland struck a deal for live coverage before the start of the event on January 15.
Qatar 2015 proved a ratings winner for Sky, with nearly 700,000 viewers watching Germany’s decisive 26-24 quarter-final defeat to the host nation. However, the lack of live free-to-air coverage provoked anger amongst handball fans in Germany. Both ARD and ZDF have said they will push for rights to future events, as long as Germany qualifies.
“ARD and ZDF will seek live rights to the 2016 European Handball Championship and the Handball World Championship in 2017,” ZDF sports director Dieter Gruschwitz told the SID news agency.
ARD sports coordinator Axel Balkausky added: “ARD and ZDF have made their interest in the Handball Euro 2016 clear on many occasions and will, when the rights are advertised, apply for them.”
BeIN Media Group will also market the global rights to the 2017 World Championships in France and DHB president Bernhard Bauer said he will push for wider coverage of the event.
He added: “We have to talk to the IHF (International Handball Federation) and rights holders including beIN Sports in order to, especially in view of the 2017 World Championships, achieve wider reach. There are certainly opportunities.”