For fans these days, the cost of the Bundesliga feels like a body hit with the ball in freezing temperatures: it hurts. The reason for this is the subscription patchwork of streaming and pay-TV providers. An overview.
Many football fans probably still remember the pay-TV channel Premiere well. For the first time they had to pay money to experience the Bundesliga live. In the early days, however, Premiere only broadcast one game per week.
Since then, not only the receiver has changed. Due to the streaming boom, the TV rights are distributed among different providers – whoever pays more gets the contract. It is logical that this has an impact on the Bundesliga costs for end consumers.
Who will broadcast the Bundesliga 2023 live?
The basic question of where to watch Bundesliga games is not easy to answer. This is the current status for the year 2023:
- DAZN (Pay TV): All games on Fridays at 8:30 p.m. Sunday all games at 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. and ten games at 7:30 p.m
- Sky (Pay TV): All games on Saturdays at 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays (English week) all matches at 18:30 and 20:30
- Sat.1 (free TV): Fridays the season opening game and the start of the second half of the season as well as a game from the 17th match day and the relegation games
It seems more exhausting to understand TV rights distribution than to spend 90 minutes plus stoppage time on a soccer field. But what does the Bundesliga cost if fans really want to experience every game live?
Bundesliga: The cost of all live games
ARD continues to show summaries. But if you want to see all Bundesliga games live, you need both a Sky and a DAZN subscription. If you book the packages individually, you have to plan around 600 euros a year, like them Expensive Fan Life infographic by Statista shows (title picture).
However, a combination package is also available. This saves you around 130 euros, because the network subscription calls up 467.88 euros a year.
The following applies to both solutions (individual subscriptions or a combination): They not only cover the Bundesliga costs, but also include the DFB Cup (Sky), the Supercup (Sky) and selected matches in the Champions League (DAZN).
Total cost with international competitions
DAZN has secured broadcasting rights for the Champions League. But the streaming service is not allowed to show all games. If you want the full program of the European premier class, you have to add another provider to your subscription portfolio: Amazon Prime. Membership costs EUR 89.90 per year.
RTL is heavily involved in the Europa League. As the rights holder, RTL shows some free TV games and offers all games via RTL+ – you pay EUR 4.99 a month for the streaming portal, which results in an annual fee of EUR 59.88.
The costs for the Bundesliga and all matches in the German competition as well as all games in European top-flight football thus amount to at least 617.66 euros. You have to book four pay TV subscriptions for this.
The costs for the Bundesliga are increasing
Around 39.2 percent of German football fans stated in 2022 that their Willingness to spend on hobbies high is. It will be exciting to see if such numbers change in the face of the patchwork – and willingness dips.
DAZN alone has increased prices three times in the last year and a half. The provider recently announced that the fee for the monthly cancellable DAZN subscription will increase from EUR 29.99 to EUR 39.99.
Also interesting:
