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Bundesliga rights too expensive for RTL |
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| Jörn Krieger, on 22-07-2008 |
German commercial broadcaster RTL has said that the Bundesliga rights are again too expensive to tempt it to bid.
The cartel office’s recent decision to permit the collaboration between
football association DFL and media entrepreneur Leo Kirch for the
centralised marketing of the rights therefore changes nothing for the
Cologne-based broadcaster. “Bundesliga is always an exciting topic,”
said RTL’s managing director Anke Schäferkordt to German newspaper
Westfälische Rundschau, but added that economic considerations needed
to be considered when assessing content.
When asked if the acquisition of non-exclusive secondary rights would
also be too expensive, Schäferkordt responded that this has certainly
been the case so far. The cartel office allowed the DFL/Kirch
collaboration only if Saturday’s Bundesliga matches are shown on
free-to-air TV before 8pm.
In its announcement, the cartel office stressed that the free-to-air
coverage on Saturday could be screened by public as well as commercial
broadcasters. Thus far public broadcaster ARD’s popular Sportschau
programme has held the rights. Soccer will make a comeback to RTL’s
schedule in 2010 when it will screen live matches of up to 18 games
from the World Cup in South-Africa.
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