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FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Hans-Joachim Watzke was visibly proud of the unexpected plus in the billion-euro deal for the TV rights. German professional soccer had received a result "that will make the whole of Europe sit up and take notice. That is a strong signal from the Bundesliga," said the spokesman of the German Football League's executive committee. The DFL will receive €4.484 billion for the German-language TV rights over the next four seasons - €84 million more than the current agreements.

This was announced by the DFL's top representatives after the general meeting at Frankfurt Airport. "This is a great success for the league and also for our management. This is a great result," said Watzke. DFL officials repeatedly pointed out that they were able to secure the fresh windfall despite the increasingly difficult economic situation and international crises.

More foreign draws now in sight

The 36 first and second division clubs receive an average of 1.121 billion euros per year. At the same time, the managing director of Borussia Dortmund announced: "Next, we will try with all our might to push the foreign lottery tickets upwards."

The DFL presented this result following the approval of the 36 clubs in a Frankfurt airport hotel. The two-percent increase gives the Bundesliga clubs "stability and planning security at a really high level almost into the next decade," said Steffen Merkel, one of the two DFL managing directors.

"This means that the Bundesliga continues to have the second strongest media contract of all soccer leagues worldwide after the Premier League," added Merkel. His colleague Marc Lenz spoke of major challenges on the national and international media markets.

The DFL Executive Committee decides on the - always hotly debated - distribution of funds within the top two leagues. "There are clubs that would like to discuss certain guidelines again. If that happens, the whole thing will be pushed back," said Watzke. Nothing will happen this year, but an agreement should be reached in January, as there is "time pressure due to the licensing deadlines".

The most important information for fans had already been leaked beforehand: if you want to watch all the games of your favorite club in the 1st division, you will still need two subscriptions in the future. Sky and DAZN have each secured two packages for the pay period from 2025/26 to 2028/29.

It is not yet known what price TV viewers will have to pay for subscriptions in future. So far, both broadcasters have offered contracts with Bundesliga matches for between 30 and 40 euros per month.

Classics "Sportschau" and "Sportstudio" continue as before

The traditional ARD "Sportschau" and ZDF "Sportstudio", the latter also featuring pictures from the first division top match in the evening, will remain as before with their free TV match reports on Saturdays. As the most important soccer program in the country, "Sportschau" has once again had the exclusive rights to the league's high points on free-to-air television since 2003/2004. Originally, a shortened and later broadcast was also under discussion.

In future, Sky will broadcast the match on Friday evening and all matches on Saturday individually - including the top match at 6.30 pm. The pay-TV channel will also offer its customers all Bundesliga 2 matches live.

Saturday conference new on DAZN

The internet sports channel DAZN, which also charges a fee, has secured the first division on Sunday as well as the conference on Saturday, which was previously shown on the competition and was not available before Premiere was renamed Premiere.

- before Premiere was renamed Sky - was invented there.

"We have 87 percent of the matches live, which is more than in the last eight years, 80 percent of all matches exclusively. I'm very happy with that," Sky Germany boss Barny Mills told the German Press Agency. "We wanted to have by far the most matches and we wanted to show the top matches - and we have achieved that," he commented on the three pay-TV packages for the top and bottom divisions.

RTL secures top second division match on free TV

A package with nine live matches on free-to-air television was again acquired by ProSiebenSat.1, including three first division broadcasts and the Supercup. RTL secured the free-TV rights for the top match of the 2nd division on Saturday evening, which is currently broadcast on Sport1. Within eight days, the DFL had awarded a total of 15 TV packages for the next four seasons to the highest bidders.

For the two DFL managing directors Merkel (39) and Lenz (38), in office since 2023 as successor to Christian Seifert, it was the first deal - after turbulent negotiations. The auction, which was aborted in April, ended with a 224-day delay at the second attempt. A dispute between the DFL and DAZN over rights package B required a court settlement.

Decline in TV revenue in other countries

The sale of TV rights for leagues is becoming increasingly difficult. In Italy and Spain, the most recent contracts concluded to date have resulted in lower revenues, while in France there has even been a significant slump. The Premier League also saw a drop in revenue when the revenue is converted into the number of matches.

The world's most expensive league by far will receive the equivalent of 8.08 billion euros for national TV marketing from 2025/2026 to 2028/2029 - but it had to increase the number of live matches from 200 to 270./ujo/DP/ngu