Bayern Munich general manager Uli Hoeness has suggested each household in Germany pay an extra two euros a month to put German league football back on terrestial television. The levy would be added to the €17.98 monthly television licence fee in an effort to close the gap in television revenue with England, Spain and Italy. Hoeness argued that it was not even the price of a small beer, but those Germans who are not interested in football might resent paying it. It would be a general levy to serve a specific purpose.
Bayern Munich general manager Uli Hoeness has suggested each household in Germany pay an extra two euros a month to put German league football back on terrestial television. The levy would be added to the €17.98 monthly television licence fee in an effort to close the gap in television revenue with England, Spain and Italy. Hoeness argued that it was not even the price of a small beer, but those Germans who are not interested in football might resent paying it. It would be a general levy to serve a specific purpose. Hoeness calculates that an additional two euros per month from the country’s 37 million households that receive television would generate some €900m in annual revenue. Bundesliga football is currently broadcast on cable television broadcaster Premiere with subscribers paying €25 a month. However, newspaper headlines have been unsurprisingly negative, e.g., ‘Solidarity surcharge for footballers’ and ‘Compulsory fee for millionaire players’. A recession is not exactly the best time to put forward such a scheme.
The 36 clubs in the Bundesliga’s two divisions currently receive a total of around €300m from television, a figure set to rise to €412m from next season. Under the Hoeness plan German clubs would receive double their current payment. Hoeness says that while leading clubs around continental Europe received between €80m and €130m annually from national television rights, Bayern earn some €50m from television, €30m of which comes from the Bundesliga. Bayern have said that they may adjust their ticket prices downwards to help fans if the recession worsens. This would be more typical of the spirit of solidarity in German football that is often praised by the likes of Sepp Blatter. However, it comes at a price in terms of the ability of clubs to compete internationally.