The 2025 DFL Media Product: New content, innovations & upgrades
28 January 2025 – Bringing viewers ever “closer to the game” to let them experience football matches and the players themselves in a more direct way has become the leitmotif for the continuing development of the DFL media product. The focus is on the emotional aspect of the sport experience.
Following the awarding of the German-language media rights for Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 matches from 2025/26 until 2028/29, the DFL is now getting ready to provide a significantly enhanced media product from the summer of 2025. Many of these new features have already been tested successfully during top matches such as the Supercup. But the future range of services offered to the media will go much further.
Lighthouse matches: the highlights of the season
A key aspect of the enhancements will be a much more active involvement of the clubs, says Dominik Scholler, Vice President Product Management & Innovation at the DFL. “Our media partners approached us with the express request to bring viewers closer to the game, for example through additional pictures, including material recorded before and after matches. For more ‘looks behind the scenes’, our close collaboration with the clubs will come to bear even more.” The result will be new content and expanded access options for the media partners, not only on matchdays but also during the week.
While numerous new developments will be implemented for all matches, there will be 20 so-called Lighthouse Matches – 15 in the Bundesliga and five in the Bundesliga 2 – where the media product will be enhanced with additional features.
Our media partners approached us with the express request to bring viewers closer to the game.
Building atmosphere: from the bus camera to the dressing room
“We want to include the dressing room in the viewer experience and give live media partners the option to record a stand-up commentary from a team’s dressing room after it has been prepared for the players,” explains Scholler.
Ahead of two home games per season, every club will equip their team bus with a camera to record the trip to the stadium, showing the fans in their scarves and jerseys cheering the team from the kerbside, and to share these impressions with the fans watching at home.
Directly after the arrival of the bus, the broadcaster may conduct an interview with one of the players of the starting line-up, which will give these interviews extra relevance.
An additional camera will be set up in the dressing room section of the stadium to show the team’s arrival. All this will let fans witness the events surrounding the game even before kick-off.
More personal than ever: the player’s perspective
The five Bundesliga 2 lighthouse matches will be enhanced by an additional point-of-view perspective: A club member will carry a body camera, smartphone or similar device to record his walk from the team bus to the dressing room and from there to the pitch, letting fans enjoy the scene from the player’s perspective on their home screens. The Bundesliga 2 clubs will be able to extend this concept to the moments immediately after the final whistle, letting one of their representatives or players capture the atmosphere in the stadium, such as the fan stand, the walk back to the dressing room, and the recording person’s emotions. These recordings can then be integrated in the Social Media Matchday Feed for the media partners to share with their subscribers.
Greetings on social media: personal clips
Additional social media formats are being contemplated to cover scenes and events before and after matches. For example, players may record brief personal video clips for their fans, such as a message from the hotel. “The core idea here is to include younger audiences and digital platforms in the coverage,” comments Dominik Scholler. “These may be greetings sent by a foreign player to his home country in his native language, or an invitation to fans encouraging them to watch the upcoming match. We have tested such brief statements successfully with clubs and media partners in the recent past.”
Interviews: more close-ups
“In addition to the customary player interviews, fans can expect additional interviews with relevant figures in future half-time breaks in both leagues,” continues Scholler. “For example, Bundesliga 2 lighthouse matches will feature an interview with the co-trainer shortly before the second half kick-off.”
Furthermore, there will be an additional player interview on the pitch directly after the final whistle of every lighthouse match – in an ambience that is more vivid and closer to the actual setting of the match than in the past. This concept was tested successfully after the Klassiker between Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern München on Matchday 12 of the current season. The clubs’ own media platforms will also record a player interview in the dressing room section right after the final whistle for timely inclusion in the base signal.
Suspenseful poll: Player of the Match
A “Player of the Match” vote is planned directly after each match from the 2025/26 season, says Jan Deckenbrock, Head of Product Innovation at DFL. It will probably be implemented directly in the Bundesliga app. “Based on match data, a shortlist of relevant players will be offered for voting to ensure that the vote is based on objective criteria.”
Innovation: anticipating future optimisations
The range of new services will go far beyond these features. Conceivably, coaches, players or other key persons may be equipped with personal microphones to capture their voices as they respond to specific situations. Plus, there will be additional interviews and other content produced during the week, such as league-wide, multi-part documentation formats similar to the Relegation Rollercoaster produced at the end of the 2023/24 season.
The future DFL media product will provide the media partners with a wide range of choices in terms of both, content and technology, opening up a host of new options for creative programming. From the high-resolution UHD-HDR standard and the top match plus camera concept to immersive 3D audio sound and services drawing on the world’s largest football archive, football fans around the world can look forward to a rich array of new media offerings presenting new perspectives, scenes and audiovisual impressions. Meanwhile, the DFL and its media partners continue developing the media product and testing new innovations for future enhancements of the digital football experience.