Bundesliga innovations: Sky brings Friday evening games to free TV!

Bundesliga innovations: Sky brings Friday evening games to free TV!

With the end of the 2024/25 season, fundamental changes in the transfer of Bundesliga games will be due from August 2025. The changes are part of a new rights period, which applies to seasons 2025/26 to 2028/29. As Derwesten.de , the new transmission concept is led by the PAY-TV broadcaster Sky, but also all the individual games Saturday afternoon and the top game will be broadcast live on Saturday evening. Sky secures almost 80% of all Bundesliga games live and exclusive.

The DAZN platform will also play a central role, as it will be broadcast on Sunday afternoon (3:30 p.m.) on Sunday afternoon (3:30 p.m.). This is an exciting development for football fans, since the new transmission rights have more options to follow their favorite games.

New offer from Sky

In order to promote the Friday evening game, Sky also introduces a new offer: Bundesliga games can now be broadcast without the extensive sports package. A basic subscription that is offered as an entertainment package will only cost 15 euros instead of the previous 35 euros. With this package, fans can follow all games from Friday evening for one year. The game day begins in the coming season with the opening game of Bayern Munich on August 22nd, which will be broadcast in parallel on the "Showcase" broadcaster, which is available on channel 100 for receiver customers.

media rights and financial aspects

according to Kicker.de The award of media rights to the DFL German Football League was carried out in a transparent tender procedure. The total income from the new transmission contracts amounts to 1.121 billion euros per season, which results in a total of 4.484 billion euros for the entire rights period. These income show an increase of around two percent compared to the previous cycle.

The Bundesliga and the 2nd Bundesliga have the second strongest national media contract of all football leagues in Germany, which underlines the unbroken popularity of German professional football. DFL managing director Steffen Merkel emphasized that the financial means contributed to the development of the leagues, while his colleague Marc Lenz emphasized that the distribution of the proceeds is transparent and in accordance with the regulations of the Federal Cartel Office.

broadcasts on free TV

For the fans who do not want to choose a paid subscription, there is also good news. bundesliga.com reports that a few games are also broadcast live on Free TV. Sat.1 secures, for example, the rights to nine games per season, which also include the opening games of the Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga as well as relegation games. RTL will show a top game of the 2nd Bundesliga live, while ARD and ZDF have the rights for the summaries of the Bundesliga departures on free TV.

Overall, the fans of the Bundesliga are therefore unanswered to pursue their favorite teams through the new contracts, be it through pay TV, streaming or free TV. The exciting development shows how the market of sports broadcasts adapts continuously to the needs of the audience.