German Handball Federation (DHB) vice-president Bob Hanning has said the organisation is seeking to devise its own means of covering the men’s national team at the forthcoming 2017 World Championship in France, with a broadcast blackout looking increasingly likely.
German handball stakeholders are currently 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.
Sportdeutschland.tv, the online sports channel of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), and DAZN, the OTT sports subscription service operated by digital media specialist Perform, both said they had dropped out of contention to sublicense rights.
Sky is also pessimistic that it can strike a deal. “Sky has repeatedly sought the World Championship rights,” a spokesman told German news agency DPA. “However, our offers have always been denied by the copyright owner.”
The Championship is set to commence on January 11 with Germany heading in as reigning European champion. The DHB is said to be considering a proposal through which it would stream games on its website and Hanning said: “We have to try to get something on our own.”
He added to German newspaper Bild that the current situation is a “total disaster”.