German pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland has lodged a complaint against federal cartel office the Bundeskartellamt over the implementation of a ‘no single buyer rule’ for the domestic rights process to the Bundesliga, as the German Football League (DFL) prepares to unveil partners for its next set of rights.
Sky’s complaint to the Higher Regional Court in Dusseldorf will not affect the current rights process, which is expected to conclude in an announcement from the DFL tomorrow (Thursday).
Instead, Sky is said to be seeking to influence future rights tenders. A Sky spokesman told the Digitalfernsehen website that the broadcaster is convinced that the no single buyer rule is “not necessary” and also “unlawful” in its current form.
The Bundeskartellamt in April confirmed that it would enforce a no single buyer rule in the tender for the next set of domestic broadcast rights to the Bundesliga, the top division of German football.
The DFL in March kicked off the sales process for the next cycle of domestic rights for the Bundesliga and 2.Bundesliga, as well as the Supercup knockout competition. The rights will cover four seasons, from 2017-18 to 2020-21, but the exact terms of the packages on offer were subject to the ruling from the Bundeskartellamt.
The watchdog has said that it would be sufficient if the rights to show between 30 and 102 Bundesliga matches out of a total of 306 per season were awarded to an alternative buyer. The Bundeskartellamt said it had taken note of similar no single buyer policies in major European competitions such as the English Premier League and Italy’s Serie A.
The Bundeskartellamt’s decision means that Sky’s grip on Bundesliga rights will be weakened. The league earns an average of €626.2m ($697.6m) per season from all domestic rights in its current four-season cycle, from 2013-14 to 2016-17. Sky currently holds all live rights to the Bundesliga and 2.Bundesliga for an average of €485.7m per season.