The award of the media rights from 2023 to 2027 will bring significantly more money and more visibility to the women’s Bundesliga. But the game days are completely dismembered.
German women’s football can look forward to a quantum leap – and there probably couldn’t have been a better time for the first independent tender for the media rights of the women’s Bundesliga than after the intoxicating EM in England.
In future, 5.175 million euros per season will come together for the period from 2023/2024 to 2026/2027. The income from the media rights thus increases 16-fold and ensures competitiveness in an international comparison.
For comparison: The Women’s Super League (WSL) from England as the benchmark is estimated at around ten million pounds (equivalent to 11.4 million euros), which is earned through the TV contracts. “The English are a bit ahead, but we’re right behind”said Holger Blask, Managing Director of DFB GmbH, which had deliberately waited for the European Championship tournament to take advantage of the spirit of optimism. “We will improve the economic basis.” Although the market for women’s football is still only a fraction of the sums that are spent in men’s football, the new economic dimension is not to be scoffed at.
Six games, six kick-off times
The streaming service DAZN and MagentaSport will share the live rights to all 132 games in the women’s Bundesliga. ARD and ZDF have acquired the rights to broadcast ten free-to-air live games and also show detailed summaries on various channels. ARD and ZDF also secured the rights to the qualifying and friendly international matches of the DFB women. It is planned to show at least two matches per year in the evening in prime time, the kick-off should generally no longer take place before 6 p.m.
The introduction of a Monday game is completely new for the women’s Bundesliga. This is where the broadcaster Sport 1 comes into play again, which for many years had dedicated this date exclusively to the men’s 2nd Bundesliga. Because all three male professional leagues will avoid this date in the future, the women will now get a game on free TV every Monday at 7:30 p.m. All six matches on a match day will have their own kick-off time from Friday to Monday. On the four weekend dates, Saturdays will be played at 12 noon and 2 p.m., Sundays probably at 2 p.m., 4 p.m. or 6 p.m.
DFB managing director Holger Blask defends Monday’s game
Monday is not undisputed, as statements by some national players recently showed. Frankfurt striker Laura Freigang pointed out that “that many Bundesliga players just at the beginning of the week” still have to work, Wolfsburg’s defender Felicitas Rauch pointed out that “the two top clubs can rarely play on Mondays”as they are challenged in the Champions League, and Munich midfielder Lina Magull said Süddeutsche Zeitung: “It shouldn’t be a regular thing. The weekend is for football.”
Blask, who previously worked for the German Football League (DFL), now replied: “Monday has a unique selling point, which is extremely useful. If we want to take the next step, we have to achieve more visibility.” His crew could not have sold the rights at a better time than this fall. The exhilarating European Championship in England, in which the protagonists felt the longing for honest football with a high level of identification and great passion, met with an overwhelming response in the summer.
Highlight games in the arenas are in vogue
18 million television viewers at the final against England were the culmination of an unexpectedly large response. The women’s Bundesliga picked up the momentum most recently: the highlight games in the men’s arenas, first the opening game Eintracht Frankfurt against Bayern Munich in front of a record crowd of 23,200 fans, then TSG Hoffenheim against VfL Wolfsburg as a live ARD broadcast, have a spirit of optimism created that could be used.
The atmospheric international match of the DFB women against France last Friday in Dresden in front of an almost full house at prime time underlined the potential in German women’s football. At the same time, the new degree was also urgently needed in order not to lose touch with the international community. The previous revenue from media exploitation was measly and, according to the DFB season report, amounted to just 154,000 euros per club in the 2020/2021 season, in the previous season it was just 89,000 euros. Through the central marketing, including the name sponsor (Flyeralarm), the DFB transferred around 300,000 euros to its twelve Bundesliga teams, which so far have not been able to cover their costs.
Women’s Bundesliga teams do not cover their costs
Commitment is an investment, especially for licensing clubs: average income of 1.26 million euros was offset by average expenses of almost 2.5 million euros in 2020/2021, with personnel expenses alone (1.35 million) exceeding total income. The fact that there are within the league with the five-digit monthly salaries for the top players at VfL Wolfsburg and FC Bayern and the low expense allowances in the sometimes three-digit range at clubs such as the promoted MSV Duisburg and SV Meppen, but also training clubs such as the SGS Essen and Turbine Potsdam, is fact.
1. FC Köln currently have a total budget of 1.5 million euros, but only 600,000 euros are covered, Managing Director Christian Keller admitted at a DFB forum at the start of the season. This disproportion should soon change with the new TV contract.