Berlin (AP) – The former DFL boss Christian Seifert is planning a streaming provider for handball, volleyball and ice hockey with the media group Axel Springer.
This should “offer the leagues beyond football a real next step in development,” said Seifert in an interview with the German Press Agency. “For the first time, your sports should be the sole focus of a media platform. We want to build a company that focuses on these leagues from morning to night and works with full commitment to get even more people excited about these sports.”
Seifert has earned billions with media rights for the German Football League (DFL), but he is now excluding this sport. “Football is left out because there are already enough platforms for it and there is a very wide demand for it,” explained the manager. “Other sports still have a lot of room for improvement here. Our concept is very clear: we take sports from the second row and put them in the first place.” The Axel Springer media group has acquired a majority stake in Seifert’s streaming start-up.
In contrast to existing providers such as Telekom with basketball and ice hockey or Sky with the handball Bundesliga, Seifert said: “For our offer, these sports have absolute priority – objectively speaking, all other larger platforms simply have a different core business.”