ZDF

Christian Seifert, chief executive of the German football league, told TV Sports Markets this week the latest domestic Bundesliga deals would entrench it as one of the world’s top three football leagues.

German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF are ready to cut off talks with Discovery Communications over a sublicensing deal for rights covering the Olympic Games in 2018 and 2020 if the media company does not lower its asking price.

Germany’s football federation is set to earn about 35 per cent more from domestic media rights to its knockout cup competition, with deals to be announced in the coming weeks.

The German Ski Federation (DSV) has renewed a rights deal with SportA, the sports-rights agency that represents German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF.

SportA, the agency that represents German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF, has acquired exclusive rights to the 2016 and 2018 men’s EHF European Handball Championships, which will be held in Poland and Croatia respectively.

Mediaset has complained to football’s European governing body Uefa after coverage of a Champions League match was made available in Italy, apparently diluting the Italian media group’s exclusive coverage of the tournament.

German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF have said that they were not given the opportunity to increase their bid for the rights to four editions of the Olympic Games from 2018 to 2024.

German public-service broadcaster ZDF has acquired rights for the 2015 Audi Cup pre-season football club competition in Germany.

Production company Plazamedia has extended a deal to produce German public-service broadcaster ZDF’s coverage of the Uefa Champions League European club football tournament.

German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF have acquired rights to the 2015 Uefa U21 Championship national team football tournament, according to the Quotenmeter.de website.

German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF will pay a smaller rights fee for the Alpine and Nordic World Ski Championships in 2019 and 2021 than they did for 2015 and 2017, following a deal agreed last week.

German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF have acquired rights for the International Ski Federation’s (FIS) Alpine and Nordic World Ski Championships in 2019 and 2021.

ARD and ZDF will pay a decent rights fee, plus broadcast sponsorship, for EuroBasket 2015 rights in Germany - with value driven by the country hosting some matches.

German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF have acquired rights for the Germany national team’s games at the 2015 EuroBasket men’s international basketball tournament.

German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF, along with the German Handball Association (DHB), have said they will step up their efforts to ensure future major handball tournaments are broadcast on free-to-air television in the country.

Mike Kiernan, analyst for SportBusiness Intelligence, reviews the most-watched events of 2014 in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.