The Basketball Bundesliga, Germany’s domestic basketball league, is in talks with pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland, commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1, telco Deutsche Telekom, pan-European sports broadcaster Eurosport and the incumbent rights-holder, sports broadcaster Sport1, about a new domestic rights deal to start next season.
Sport1’s deal to show one league game live per week expires at the end of the 2011-12 season.
League managing director Jan Pommer said a new deal was unlikely to be confirmed until the Deutsche Fussball Liga, the German football league, awards its own domestic rights for the 2013-14 to 2016-17 seasons. The football deal is expected to be finalised by May. Several of the broadcasters interested in the basketball rights are also participating in the tender for the football rights.
“We will see what in the end is the best overall package,” Pommer said, as reported by German magazine Focus. “Earning money is not the top priority. The most important thing is presence.”