COLOGNE (dpa-AFX) - Deutsche Telekom and free-TV broadcaster RTL are entering into a comprehensive cooperation for the 2024 European Football Championship in Germany. The two companies announced Tuesday that, among other things, they will jointly operate a TV studio and large parts of the production infrastructure at RTL's Koln site. In addition, RTL will cover all matches of the tournament "across all platforms directly after the final whistle with extensive highlight rights."

Telekom had surprisingly secured the complete media rights for the European Championship in Germany from the European Football Union UEFA in 2019, leaving behind, among others, the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF.

ARD and ZDF acquired sublicenses from Telekom. Accordingly, they will broadcast 34 of the 51 matches live. These include all the German team's games, the opening match, the semifinals and the final. A further twelve matches can be seen on free TV on RTL. Telekom will broadcast all 51 matches via its paid streaming service MagentaTV, including five matches exclusively./clu/DP/men