Premier League's new TV deal and the Bundesliga

In light of the Premier League's new TV deal? Is the Bundesliga attractive enough?

It has been a couple of weeks since the Premier League announced its new, record breaking TV deal worth £5.136 billion for the seasons 16/17 through 18/19. That's around £1.7bn per year. In comparison, the Bundesliga TV deal is worth £610m for the 16/17 season; roughly a third. Naturally, it sparked debate about possible changes that could be made to close that financial gap. The first, quite concrete option would be to have one Bundesliga game on Monday. Similar to Monday Night Football in the Premier League. It would take the number of kick-off times to 6: Friday 8.30pm [in weeks without International break], Saturday 3.30pm (Konferenz/Simulcast), Saturday 6.30pm, Sunday 3.30 and 5.30pm and possibly Monday 8.30pm. Since a split like that would leave only 4 games for the Konferenz, it is questionable whether a) the Monday night game would be a weekly feature or b) whether, in an attempt to match the Spanish model, the remaining four Konferenz games would be given their own kick-off time as well. 

The main issue the Bundesliga has to tackle however, is not the number of different kick-off times, but rather the selection of matches for the prime spots. The main spot, the highlight or top match is seen as the Saturday, 6.30pm kick-off. Let's have a look at the matches in the Rückrunde.

Leverkusen - Dortmund (0*)

Hamburg - Hannover (2*)

Frankfurt - Schalke (3*)

Köln - Hannover (3*)

*number of Saturday matches that would have been more attractive.

A main factor in the scheduling and in the subsequent selection of, on paper, rather unattractive matches is the fact that according to the Sky TV deal, each team is only allowed to play in that slot six times a season - which limits the possibilities. The problem remains the same. A large number of games that are in single slots lose out to the ones that are played Saturday 3.30pm. Now, the Konferenz (Simulcast) is big inside Germany and  great fun to watch, but it might not be as big a pull globally as for instance Super Sunday in the Premier League. However, it always has to be taken into account that unlike in England, every Bundesliga match is available for viewing on Sky Germany - no matter the kick-off time [which coincidentally drives down the price per televised game even further to]. So it could be argued that especially for advertising the league inside Germany, scheduling does not have the same impact as it has globally.

That dynamic, of national and international rights, is a further area that sets leagues like the BPL and the Bundesliga apart. While the Bundesliga may not be as attractive as the BPL, and they are still losing out on a lot of money, the main difference in terms of the big bucks has to be the national rights. With the BPL, ever since BT emerged as a serious competitor for Sky, the amount of money spent on the TV deal has skyrocketed. Competition like that does not really exist in Germany. The Bundesliga can push Sky Germany up to a certain limit, but eventually, they'll be the ones taking the deal. Adding to that, Pay-TV simply isn't as big in Germany as it is in the UK; meaning there is less money to spend on Bundesliga or any rights in general.

Another issue would be the competitiveness of the league. Sure, Bayern are running away with the league again - but title race isn't the only selling point of the league. Competitive football and money will always be directly linked. The more money there is in the league, the more competitive the league is. The more competitive the league is, the more money there will be. As seen with the latest BPL deal, in terms of revenue, all 20 BPL teams will soon be in Europe's top 30, financially speaking. Meaning more talent will go there. It'll become more competitive and so on. Hence the difference between top clubs and smaller clubs is much larger in German football than it is in the BPL. While this may be considered as natural and how sports work, it impacts the way the game is seen and played and how attractive it is to the average customer. 

At the end of the day, it is unlikely that the Bundesliga will be able to close the financial gap to the BPL any time soon. Meaning it will be down to the individual clubs to maximise their financial potential. A lot of clubs are currently doing so by inviting strategic partners into the club; raising millions on top of other sponsorship deals. Yet a lot of clubs should be doing significantly better, still. Especially those clubs with a advantage of site, so to speak. Clubs like Berlin for instance. Not only are they the only club within a 130 mile radius, they are also the German capital. I only quite really realised this lately, but the Bundesliga is the only major European league that lacks a strong team from its Capital city. PSG in France; Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham in England; Real and Atletico in Spain, Roma and Lazio in Italy or Benfica and Sporting in Portugal. Germany has Hertha BSC. A club that lately has spent more time fighting relegation than anything else. It could be argued that this would just be another club, but capital cities are leading clubs all over Europe. The league benefits from having them and those clubs are strong because they are located where they are. Being a capital is a massive pull factor and the Bundesliga certainly loses a key player. 

All those aspects considered, the Bundesliga is still a hugely exciting league with terrific talent. It is, as it stands, simply not as marketable as the BPL. Less money also always leads to innovation, new coaching and tactics - to make up for the lack in quality. The Bundesliga is still also more fan friendly, because not every game is dictated by the TV companies. How long that will last? We will have to wait and see.