More than 30 bids have been submitted for the domestic rights for German football’s Bundesliga, according to Christian Seifert, chief executive of the Deutsche Fussball Liga, the German league.
Seifert told the Sport1 website that the league would send interested parties an invitation to tender for the media rights from 2013-14 to 2016-17 by the end of this week. He said he would like rights sales to be concluded before the end of this season in May.
The league currently generates €412 million ($527 million) per year in domestic rights fees, but Bundesliga clubs are hopeful of increasing this figure to at least €500 million per year.
“A new television contract brings opportunities and risks, but we are trying to achieve a better result than last time,” Seifert said. “We want to increase revenue in the next media rights period, but we will also strive to achieve sustainable growth.”
The league was given the go-ahead to launch the tender after its rights-sales procedure was approved by the German competition regulator, the Bundeskartellamt, last Friday.