DFB Award Media Rights for DFB Cup to ARD & SKY while Extending Deal with Infront

The Presidential Board of the German Football Association (DFB) has awarded the media rights for the DFB Cup to public broadcaster ARD (8 matches live) and the pay TV operator Sky (55 matches live), herbal ensuring broad domestic television coverage until 2015/2016.

DFB President, Dr Theo Zwanziger, said: “The new agreements with our TV partners ARD and Sky ensure optimal TV coverage of the DFB Cup. Unlike the level of coverage in any other country – all 63 matches will be transmitted live. This reflects the continual growth in popularity of the competition with the final in Berlin as the ultimate annual highlight.”

Also DFB have renewed their marketing rights agreement with the international sports marketing company Infront Sports & Media  for the same period.

The new contract with the DFB confirms Infront’s central role, handling all stadium advertising rights for all DFB Cup matches. Since the 2009/2010 season all 63 matches of the competition have been covered live, along with all the rights managed from one central source by Infront.

From the initial introduction of the marketing platform, for the first time, commercial partners of the DFB Cup were provided with product category exclusivity throughout the entire competition. Today, the well established platform now has four major brands involved as TOP partners – Bitburger, Continental, Deutsche Post (German postal services) and Jack Wolfskin, along with seven additional SPOT partners.

Wolfgang Niersbach, General Secretary of the DFB, said:: “Our partnership with Infront has provided a trustworthy working relationship that for many years has implemented and developed the successful marketing rights for the DFB Team matches. This is why we have decided, with absolute confidence, to continue our relationship through to 2016.”

Stephan Herth, Executive Director Summer Sports at Infront, commented: “We are extremely pleased with the prolongation of our agreement. It confirms the success of the approach chosen and the overall high level of services we provide to the DFB. We will continue to work very closely with the DFB on this contract, further developing both the premium event value as well as the exclusivity for commercial partners in the upcoming years.”

Dr Uwe Ploch, Director Summer Sports at Infront, added: “For the 2012/2013 season, as the next major step, we will further reduce the overall amount of DFB Cup partners by 45 per-cents from eleven to only six. This is how we will cement the event’s position as a consistent and highly exclusive all-year communication platform with even higher potential for major brands. Besides all the other benefits, next year for the first time commercial partners will also be entitled to use the DFB Cup logo for their communication activities.”