Six German Bundesliga clubs have teamed up in a new collective designed to reform the means by which broadcast rights revenue is distributed across the top two divisions of domestic football.
The ‘Team Marktwert’ group consists of Hamburg SV, Hertha Berlin, Werder Bremen, Eintracht Frankfurt, FC Köln and VfB Stuttgart.
The distribution of broadcast revenues in the Bundesliga is currently determined by two criteria. Sixty-five per cent of revenue is distributed equally between the 18 clubs, with the remaining share split according to a team’s sporting performance over the past five seasons.
Team Marktwert is calling for a third pillar of revenue sharing to be introduced which would factor in a team’s commercial appeal and market value according to criteria such as fan base, popularity, television ratings, membership levels and social media presence.
Hamburg’s chief marketing officer Joachim Hilke told German newspaper Bild: “Those that add value to a product because they have a lot more fans and followers, should be taken into account in the distribution of income. I find that anything else would be simply unfair.”
The German Football League (DFL) this month kicked off the sales process for the next cycle of domestic rights for the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga, as well as the Supercup knockout competition. The rights will cover four seasons, from 2017-18 to 2020-21.
The members of Team Marktwert have called on other clubs to join them in the initiative.