TV Shock Over the Bundesliga
In the dispute over the awarding of TV rights for the Bundesliga, the arbitration court has ruled in favor of DAZN. The result is a defeat for the DFL: The largest package of Bundesliga rights with 196 live games (Package B) must be re-tendered.
The conflict revolved around whether the DFL was within its rights to reject DAZN’s offer. On April 15, the streaming platform offered around 1.6 billion euros (an average of 400 million euros per year) for Package B, which includes 196 games (Saturday at 3:30 p.m. plus Friday evenings). According to DAZN, its bid was at least 320 million euros higher than that of competitor Sky. The DFL then demanded a bank guarantee within 24 hours, which DAZN could not provide.
However, the arbitration court, which DAZN had approached, has now ruled that this demand was not lawful.
As the German Football League (DFL) announced on Tuesday afternoon, the arbitration court has partially upheld the lawsuit filed by DAZN at the end of April against the awarding of the rights package B in the media rights tender for the 2025/26 to 2028/29 seasons.
This means: The TV rights package B will be re-awarded by the DFL as part of the media rights tender! Sky had originally been awarded this package in April. Now, that decision has been overturned. This also means that it is currently unclear where Bundesliga games will be broadcast starting next season.
However, it is not a complete victory for DAZN, as the platform had demanded to be awarded Package B in the arbitration process. The court rejected this because DAZN did not meet all the requirements of the tender.
Package B includes the broadcasts of all Bundesliga games on Friday evenings (8:30 p.m.) and Saturday afternoons (3:30 p.m.), as well as the two relegation playoff games between the 16th place Bundesliga team and the 3rd place 2. Bundesliga team.
The specific reasoning behind the decision will be provided by the arbitration court in November. The DFL has stated that it will refrain from further commenting until then. How the tender process will proceed will be decided after a vote by the DFL’s executive committee.
DAZN commented on the ruling: “DAZN is pleased that the court has ruled in our favor. We continue to believe that DAZN is the best partner for the DFL, the clubs, and for German football fans.”
