DAZN, the OTT sports subscription service operated by digital media specialist Perform, has said it is in talks over a rights deal in Germany for handball’s 2017 Men’s World Championship.
The 2017 World Championship will take place in France from January 11-29 but still has no rights partner in Germany.
DAZN managing director Kay Dammholz told German news agency DPA: “We are currently in talks with the rights-holder in France regarding the 2017 handball World Championship. If we succeed in finding meaningful economic conditions with our negotiating partners, we would very much like to present the handball to fans on DAZN.”
German handball stakeholders are seeking to avoid a repeat of the situation that arose during the most recent edition of the International Handball Federation showpiece. The 2015 Men’s World Championship took place in Qatar, with public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF only securing rights for extracts of coverage from the tournament.
Under the deal with beIN Media Group, the tournament’s global rights distribution partner, clips of games were shown in news and sports programmes. ARD and ZDF pulled out of talks to acquire live rights for the tournament before pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland struck a deal for live coverage before the start of the event.