DFL increases national media revenue to EUR 1.121 billion per season from 2025-26

• Sky secures the live rights to all single matches on Friday and Saturday as well as all Bundesliga 2 matches, DAZN will broadcast the Saturday conference and all single matches on Sunday
• ARD and ZDF retain highlight rights packages on Saturday evening
• Sat.1 acquires live package, including season opener, Supercup and relegation play-offs
• RTL receives free live rights for the Bundesliga 2’s top match and pay-TV clips package

5 December 2024 – The DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga has once again surpassed the billion-euro mark for the awarding of German-language media rights, exceeding the revenues generated from the previous cycle. For the 2025-26 to 2028-29 seasons, the 36 Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 clubs can expect revenue totalling EUR 1.121 billion per season. This corresponds to a total revenue of EUR 4.484 billion, an increase of around two per cent compared to the previous cycle. The Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 thus continue to have the second-strongest national media contract among all football leagues.

“The result of the tender underlines the unbroken popularity of German professional football, despite economically challenging times. Trust and unity within the league association have paid off. At the end of an intensive process, a very good and comprehensively secured financial result has now been achieved. The clubs now have planning security at a high financial level for another four years. For the fans, our future partners in both the pay and free-to-air markets will provide a high degree of consistency,” said DFL CEO Steffen Merkel. “We would like to thank all media partners for their strong commitment to our leagues. Together, the clubs and the DFL will justify this trust in the coming years by working even more closely with our partners and providing them with the best possible support in achieving their goals.”

DFL CEO Marc Lenz said: “The financial security achieved with this result is a key foundation for the positive development of the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2. From this position of strength, we must tackle the economic, sporting and political challenges – and continue to develop our leagues together with the 36 clubs and make them fit for the future.”

In the area of pay-TV, there will continue to be two media partners. Live coverage of the Bundesliga’s single matches on Friday and Saturday (including the Saturday evening top match) will be broadcast by Sky. The broadcaster will also show all Bundesliga 2 matches. DAZN will broadcast the Saturday conference (showing key moments from the 4-5 Bundesliga matches that kick off concurrently at 3:30pm CET each week) and all Bundesliga single matches on Sunday.

The Bundesliga 2’s Saturday evening match will also be broadcast free-to-air on RTL.

Sat.1 has secured a comprehensive live rights package for free TV, including the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 season openers, the relegation play-offs and the Supercup.

ARD has secured the highlights (the first showing on free-to-air TV) of the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 matches on early Saturday evening and on Friday and Sunday evening. ZDF retains the rights to the second airing of the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 highlights on free-to-air TV on Saturday evening, as well as the first showing of highlights of the Bundesliga’s top match on free-to-air TV. Sport1 will continue to have the right to broadcast highlights of the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 matches from Friday and Saturday on Sunday morning. 

RTL acquired the pay-TV rights for highlight clips of Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 matches immediately after the end of the match. ZDF secured the rights package for free-to-air highlights of matches in both leagues from Monday. The newly introduced short clip rights from Monday go to Axel Springer. The audio rights were also awarded – ARD secured them in both available areas (FM and web/mobile).

All rights were awarded in an open, transparent and non-discriminatory tender, which was agreed with the Federal Cartel Office. The DFL Executive Committee will decide on the revenue distribution plan.

A presentation containing an overview of the rights packages awarded can be found here: