Sky Deutschland has tightened its grip on live coverage of Bundesliga football, although it will now pay almost twice as much as it did before.
The pay-TV channel has won the rights to show matches on the web, as well as extending those for cable and satellite broadcasts, for four seasons from August 2013. The decision was a setback for Deutsche Telekom, which had blaunched a much-hyped bid for satellite and cable rights as a complement to the mobile web and IPTV rights it wanted to extend.
Sky Deutschland has tightened its grip on live coverage of Bundesliga football, although it will now pay almost twice as much as it did before.
The pay-TV channel has won the rights to show matches on the web, as well as extending those for cable and satellite broadcasts, for four seasons from August 2013. The decision was a setback for Deutsche Telekom, which had blaunched a much-hyped bid for satellite and cable rights as a complement to the mobile web and IPTV rights it wanted to extend.
Sky Deutschland will pay an average of €468m a year for the broader rights package, compared with an average of €250m a year it is paying for four seasons ending in June 2013.
The Bundesliga will earn an additional €142m on average a year from companies such as radio stations and public TV for packages covering highlights. This takes its total average annual payments to €628m, 52 per cent higher than the current rate of €410m a year and also well above league hopes of hitting €500 a year.