Deutsche Telekom wins Euro 2024 rights

Deutsche Telekom has secured exclusive rights to the 2024 Uefa European Championship.

As reported by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), the undisclosed deal between Uefa and the telco will be signed this week. The deal will cover broadcast rights for 51 matches in the country to be aired via Deutsche Telekom’s Magenta TV.

This is a different distribution strategy for the tournament, which previously signed a deal with Germany’s public service broadcasters ARD and ZDF foor the rights to Euro 2020, while commercial broadcaster RTL currently has the broadcast rights to the German national team’s qualifying matches.

As per German broadcast laws, any match involving the German national team, along with the tournament’s opening match, semi-finals and final must be broadcast free-to-air. 

A report from Der Spiegel adds that this means that the telco would like to sign a sublicensing deal with ADR and ZDF. 

A deal with commercial networks RTL, Sat.1, Pro Sieben or Sport 1 are potential options, though the report says that DT would prefer to go with a PSB.