The board of the Deutsche Fussball Liga, the German football league, will meet on April 17 to discuss the bids for the next cycle of domestic rights for the Bundesliga 1 and 2, the top two divisions of club football in Germany, and hopes to award the rights on the same day.
The rights cover the four seasons from 2013-14 to 2016-17.
The Reuters news agency reports that incumbent pay-television rights-holder Sky Deutschland is favourite to retain the main package of live rights, but competition from telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom is expected to drive up revenues for the league. The report said the rights are expected to generate at least €450 million per year, up from €412 million in the current cycle.
Analysts have predicted that Sky Deutschland will have to spend between 10 and 15 per cent more than the €250 million ($328 million) per season it pays in its current deal, from 2009-10 to 2012-13. Under the terms of the tender, the league does not have to accept the highest offer for the rights, and can consider any bid that is within 20 per cent of the highest offer.
“We believe that it is very likely that Sky will receive again the license to broadcast live Bundesliga,” said Klaus Kraenzle, an analyst from financial services company Silvia Quandt.
Deutsche Telekom plans to sublicense some of the Bundesliga rights to third parties on a non-exclusive basis if its bid is successful. The telco’s primary target is to retain the IPTV rights it holds in the current cycle, which it exploits on its Liga Total channel, which has about 160,000 subscribers.
Sky Deutschland, cable-television operators Unity Media and Kabel Deutschland, and commercial broadcasters RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 are reported to be among the other bidders. Twelve out of the 15 companies that had been approved by the league reportedly submitted bids for the 19 available packages by April 2, the deadline for the first round of bids.