Sky and DAZN keep their grip on Bundesliga rights in Germany

Domestic media rights to Bundesliga for the 2021-2025 cycle have been awarded to the pay TV operator Sky, the OTT sports-specialized actor DAZN and the commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 (for nine free-to-air matches). Sky and DAZN were the incumbent broadcasters this season, DAZN having reached a sub-licensing agreement with Discovery. The tender was initially supposed to take place in March, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The rights fees are reported to be slightly lower than in the previous cycle, when the rights value had increased by around 85%. Amazon, which recently secured rights to the Champions League for the next cycle and to Bundesliga for the remainder of the 2019-2020 season, and which was therefore expected to be a fierce competitor, has not acquired any rights. The Bundesliga is already the second Top 5 European soccer league experiencing a decrease in its domestic rights value, after the Premier League in 2018 for the 2019-2022 cycle. It remains early to tell whether this decrease in the rights to Bundesliga reflects the possible start of a long expected drop in sports rights value, or a potential short-term impact of the COVID-19 situation.