Local broadcaster wins rights for Bundesliga games

Dubai: The Dubai Sports Channel (DSC), which is part of Dubai Media Incorporated (DMI), yesterday announced it had cemented a deal making DSC the official and exclusive broadcaster of all German league matches in the Middle East and the North African region (MENA).

DSC announced it had signed the deal with the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league, represented by the DFL Sports Enterprises, and the Sportsman Media Group.

The Scotsman Media Group is a sports-rights and marketing agency that owns all media rights to Bundesliga games (outside Germany) from 2009 to 2016.

The deal was signed by Rashid Amiri, the general manager of DSC, Thomas Krohne chief executive officer of the Sportsman Media Group and Jorg Daubitzer, DFL chief operating officer.

The contract will enable DSC to extend coverage of all Bundesliga matches via its two free-to-air stations to more than 100 million households in 23 Arab and North-African countries.

The 24-hour free-to-air DSC has won the rights for all Bundesliga matches following an intense bidding process and tough competition offered by several high-calibre global broadcasting corporations.

"Over the past three years, we have consistently brought German league matches to DSC viewers with additional spotlights such as 'Kick off', which gives an overview of each game prior to the start and analyses of other games during the week.

"As a comprehensive sports channel, we are keen to further strengthen our programme offerings, especially in football in the near future," said Amiri.

He said negotiations with the German league started in the 2006-2007 season.

"After negotiating for six months with the DFL, they accepted our offer despite other channels offering their bids to win the rights.

"The DFL wants the Bundesliga to be broadcast world wide and the DSC covers all the continents. We signed with them until the season 2015-2016," he said.