Axel Springer chief executive Mathias Döpfner has said that the German media company will participate in the auction for the next cycle of rights to the top-tier domestic football Bundesliga, but will not seal a deal at an inflated price.
The new rights cycle will cover four seasons, from 2017-18 to 2020-21.
In the current rights cycle, Axel Springer has the rights to show clips from matches on its websites, including the online edition of its Bild newspaper.
“We are happy with the current package we have but we had expected a bigger effect,” Döpfner said.
Döpfner said about a quarter of new subscribers signed up to Bild’s online platform because of the online Bundesliga clips.
“If the rights end up going for bigger amounts of money compared to the previous auction, I think it will be very unlikely that we will get what we want, because to us it is not worth it,” Döpfner added, according to the Reuters news agency.