German public-service broadcaster ARD is considering a “serious” bid for the rights to the Uefa Champions League club football competition, according to the Quotenmeter.de website.
Uefa, football’s European governing body, last month invited bids for the media rights in Germany to the Champions League for the three seasons running from 2015-16 to 2017-18.
Uefa’s incumbent partners for the 2012-13 to 2014-15 seasons of the Champions League, public-service broadcaster ZDF and pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland, are expected to bid again but ARD could provide serious competition to ZDF, the report said.
ARD said on Twitter: “The ARD has… not decided whether they are making a bid for the Champions League.”
ARD, along with ZDF, lost a substantial part of its football content in July when commercial broadcaster RTL acquired the live rights in Germany to the national team qualifying matches for the Euro 2016 and 2018 Fifa World Cup competitions.
Bids for rights to Germany’s new Champions League cycle are due by November 27, with the Team Marketing agency handling the sales process.