Sky Deutschland has held off the challenge of Deutsche Telekom in an auction for broadcast rights for German Bundesliga football, the German Football League (DFL) said.

The rights cover the four seasons starting in 2013/14 and will fetch an overall €2.5 billion or an average €628 million per season, DFL said. The deal represents an increase of around 52 per cent over the current €412 million

Sky Deutschland won the rights to show Bundesliga matches via cable and satellite – which it already held for the last three seasons – as well as the mobile and IPTV rights previously held by Deutsche Telekom.

Highlight rights have been retained by pubcaster ARD, which can also broadcast such transmissions on the Internet and on mobile devices. ARD has also secured a package of seven live games for free to air TV. This package includes the live season-opening round, play-offs games and the Super Cup. The second pick of Bundesliga matches on Saturday afternoon and the first window of the 18.30 game are retained by ZDF, with Sport1 continuing to show highlights of Bundesliga 2 on Friday and Sunday, with the live second league game transferring to Monday.

Axel-Springer-Verlag has won the right to offer clips from all games via web TV and mobile, as a paid premium service available one hour after the end of the game available on video on demand. The rights will apply from the season 2013/2014 through to 2016/2017.

Christian Seifert, chairman of the Deutsche Fußball Liga, suggested the auction outcome combined traditional viewing habits and innovative ways to look at the future, and that with international revenue added, German professional football would earn €700 million annually from its rights “The League strengthens herewith its position as one of the best-selling soccer leagues the world. The clubs now have more economic freedom than ever before. Against this background, we thank you for the confidence of our media,” he said.

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