ARD & ZDF Retain Rights to German Soccer Internationals

The rights to the German national soccer side’s international matches have been retained by the nation’s public service broadcasters ARD and ZDF for a further four years.

The new contract will commence in 2012/13 and concludes at the end of the 2015/16 season, worth a combined US$245m and will cover all home qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and international friendlies for Germany’s senior team, as well as all matches played by the German senior women’s national soccer team and selected games from the 3. Liga.

In a twist, Germany’s home qualifying matches to UEFA Euro 2016 in France were not included in this deal – negotiated by ARD and ZDF’s sports rights agency SportA with the Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB) – as for the first time rights to these fixtures will be marketed centrally by UEFA.

Wolfgang Niersbach, general secretary of the DFB, said: “We want to thank all the television channels for expressing an interest in the rights. The public broadcasters offer an excellent platform for Germany internationals plus women’s football and the 3. Liga due to their strong regional structures.”

ZDF director-general Markus Schaechter added: “Viewers can look forward to continuing skilled and high quality broadcasts of DFB matches on free television.”