SPORTFIVE wait with Bundesliga TV rights bid

International sports marketing agency, SPORTFIVE, said it will wait before bidding against Premiere, a pay-television company, for the German Bundesliga 2009 football rights.

"We cannot say that we will definitely bid [for the Bundesliga rights]. We will wait for the packages to become available and then check what there is on the market," SPORTFIVE told Sportcal.com.

Lars Reckwitz, SPORTFIVE manager, mentioned at a press conference to launch Sportdigital.tv, the agency's internet portal, of SPORTFIVE's aim to bid, but the company said his comments were misunderstood.

Reckwitz was quoted in the German press as saying that SPORTFIVE "has 10 Bundesliga clubs under contract and are therefore interested in doing something about the monopoly in the German broadcast industry," and that it was "clear" that it would bid for the rights.

SPORTFIVE replied that Reckwitz had said the company would look at the tender documents.

Arena, a pay-television channel, was granted the rights for 2006-2009 in a contract worth EUR 240 million per year, but it was then sub-licensed to Premiere for EUR 100 million a year.

The German football league, DFL, will issue a tender for the rights to the 2009-2010 season, along with later seasons, at the end of this year. SPORTFIVE is waiting to see how those rights will be split.

Carsten Schmidt, a member of Premiere's board, and who is responsible for sports and new business, said the company looks at every competitor seriously, but was quoted in the German press as saying SPORTFIVE's television venture was "a very, very ambitious undertaking."

She added that "distribution doesn't mean successful marketing."

The German press also stated that there could be two more bidders for the 2009 rights for the Bundesliga.

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.