Premiere in talks for Bundesliga TV rights

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The Bundesliga wants to bring in more television revenue so the German league remains competitive on and off the field with top-flight football in England, Spain and Italy. A Bundesliga official said hat the league's TV rights are worth €1bn a year to its official broadcaster. The Bundesliga earned €300 million this season in television income, less than its major European rivals, despite high ratings.

Bundesliga manager Christian Seifert said experts believe Premiere Pay TV - the league's main broadcast partner - signs up half of its 3.3m subscribers because they want to watch football. "That means the TV rights, from their view, must be worth €1bn," Seifert said. Premiere pays €180m a season to screen all Bundesliga matches live. The remainder of the Bundesliga broadcast income comes from highlights programs and secondary rights.

Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who has called for the league to receive at least €500m a season, is concerned that German teams have struggled in Europe recently. "We all want interesting matches and international success," Seifert said. "But where are the budgets for that supposed to come from? The Bundesliga has the cheapest tickets of all of Europe's top leagues and that will stay that way."

Premiere has agreed to pay more if it can screen Bundesliga matches several days a week, but German fans are notoriously conservative in changing their viewing habits. Fans rebelled when Friday matches started several years ago, forcing the league to cancel the change. Ratings plummeted for a highlights program that was screened later than usual. But officials continue to push for flexible starting times. Bayern manager Uli Hoeness suggested the league play a noon match in Germany so it will be shown in prime time in Japan to build support in Asia. Franz Beckenbauer, the country's most influential football figure, is not in favor. "Flexible times is something we have to talk about, but please, no games at 11 a.m. on a Sunday," Beckenbauer said.

However, with no football shown on public TV, sponsors would face a shrinking TV audience and business magazine Capital warned that consequently various companies have threatened to reduce their financial investment in sponsoring clubs. According to Capital, TUI, one of Europe’s leading travel companies, would be ready to renegotiate their €3 million sponsorship deal with Hannover 96, while telecommunication Deutsche Telekom (Bayern Munich) and Arcor (Hertha Berlin) are ready to consider similar proposals.