German subscription broadcaster Sportdigital is set to carry content from action sports and lifestyle channel Edgesport after successfully applying for a broadcast licence, while Bundesliga football club Schalke 04 has been granted a licence for its live streaming platform.
The decisions were announced by the Commission for Concentration in the Media (KEK) at its latest assembly meeting in Berlin. In August, Sportdigital rebranded itself as Sportdigital Fussball to reflect a programming line-up now entirely focused on live coverage of different international football leagues.
However, the Sportainment Medien-owned broadcaster submitted a licence application to carry Edgesport at local media authority Medienanstalt Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein (MA HSH). The German version of Edgesport, which is operated by the IMG agency, will be distributed as a pay-television service via satellite, cable networks, IPTV and via internet platforms.
The announcement comes after internet company Amazon further enhanced the sports content on offer to customers of its Prime subscription service in Austria and Germany through a new agreement with Edgesport in September 2017.
In December 2015, German commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 agreed a multi-year distribution deal for Edgesport in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Meanwhile, Schalke has become the sixth Bundesliga club to successfully apply for a broadcasting license for its live streaming offering. The application for Schalke TV was submitted to Medien NRW.
Streaming of press conferences, training sessions, interviews and esports content will be distributed via the club’s website and app as well as through the official channels of Schalke 04 on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Twitch.
Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Eintracht Frankfurt and 2. Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart already have similar agreements.