German football’s Bundesliga could generate €800 million ($1.05 billion) per year from domestic broadcast rights sales in “a few years’ time,” according to Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, chairman of Bayern Munich, the country’s biggest club.
The Bundesliga, the top two divisions in German club football, will earn €628 million per year in the 2013-14 to 2016-17 cycle, a 52.5-per-cent increase on the current cycle, under deals finalised last week. Rummenigge told the Business Week magazine that the new deals had elevated the Bundesliga – which he said had been “completely undervalued for years” – to a higher status within European club football’s hierarchy.
“Now we are finally no longer at the bottom of the table of the top five leagues’ television revenues in Europe, behind England, Spain, Italy and France,” he said.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that if pay-television in Germany is finally up and running properly, then we will break the €800 million mark in a few years’ time.”
Rummenigge said his club would earn €45 million per season in the new cycle, €15 million per season more than at present.
He also predicted that the value of the German league’s domestic rights in its next cycle would surpass that of the French league.
The French league has secured just under €600 million per season in domestic rights revenue over the four years from 2012-13 to 2015-16, down from €668 million per season in the current cycle, from 2008-09 to 2011-12. Mobile rights are yet to be awarded by the French league.