<
>

German TV rights up for sale, to include Monday night matches

The German Football League (DFL) has put the domestic TV broadcasting rights out to tender.

The new contract will begin in the 2017-18 season and expire in the summer of 2021, and for the first time five of the 306 matches will be moved to Monday night.

The DFL hopes for a significant rise in domestic TV revenue when the new contract will be signed later this year.

The current deal is worth €696 million for all 36 member clubs from the upper two German tiers. A further €153.8m has been injected into the league from the international broadcasting rights holders.

The DFL said on its website that it hopes to allocate the TV rights before the start of Euro 2016 in just under two months' time.

For the first time, and following the wishes of the German cartel office, a "no single buyer rule" is part of the tender.

While it still allows one network to broadcast all matches on Pay TV if they win the bid for all five live packages for the top flight, a second media company could acquire an "over-the-top-package" which would grant them the exclusive right to broadcast three matches of every matchday live on web, TV and mobile.

The German audience will still have access to free coverage of all Bundesliga games, with the main show on Saturday allowed to broadcast pictures of the matches at 6:30 p.m CET., 75 minutes after the final whistle at 5:15 p.m CET.

The DFL will also move a total of 10 matches from the traditional 3:30 p.m. spot on Saturday to Sunday and Monday.

"We combine tradition and innovation with the necessity of economic growth as a measure of safeguarding the future of German professional football at the highest European level," DFL CEO Christian Seifert said.

"Our goal is to continue to strengthen the successful institution Bundesliga, from a sporting and economical point of view as well with a view to the fans and the millions in front of the screens."

Bayern fans, as well as Borussia Dortmund supporters, have protested against the introduction of Monday night games in recent home matches. In Bayern's Champions League tie against Benfica last Tuesday, fans hit out at CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

The Bayern chief responded by saying he was the "wrong recipient of the criticism," adding that the idea for Monday night games "stems from the German Football League and not Bayern or me."

Following the announcement on Tuesday, Club Nr. 12, FC Bayern Munich's biggest fan organisation, took to Twitter to say they will not accept the decision without protest.

They wrote: "Five matches on Monday are five too many. We will not stop protesting against it." The DFL also announced five more Sunday matches, with the additional games moving to either 1:30 p.m. CET kickoff or a 6 p.m. CET start. In the former model they would the place of a Bundesliga II match which would then be moved to Saturday

All late Sunday matches are to be moved back by 30 minutes to a 6 p.m. CET kickoff.