German pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland has voiced its concerns about the impact that official football club channels are having on its coverage of the Bundesliga top division.
Sky Deutschland pays an average of €486m ($667m) per season for the exclusive rights to the Bundesliga in a deal that will run until 2017.
Sky Deutschland chief executive officer Carsten Schmidt told the DPA news agency that such levels of investment should grant the broadcaster better access to certain football clubs’ stars and coaches.
“We need access to the teams and the stars,” Schmidt said. “Usually we have this, but there are clubs who think they can ensure exclusivity for themselves. This goes in the wrong direction. We have the perception that more and more clubs are trying to run television channels as a hobby. In our view, these are unpleasant developments. We are closely monitoring the situation and we'll talk to the [Bundesliga] leaders.”