The deal will see RTL acquire live rights to all matches on the first three Sundays – excluding any Germany games – and sits alongside the existing deal Infront has agreed with national broadcasters ARD/ZDF announced last month.
With Germany as host of the 2006 tournament, interest will be sky high in the tournament, and Infront clearly believe this split selling will prove a success.
Said GC
RTL will also show daily highlights throughout the competition, after midnight, as well as five pre-shows on Sunday mornings.
Meanwhile, Infront also confirmed yesterday it had reached an exclusive agreement with two commercial free-to-air broadcasters - VTM of the VMMa Group and VT4 of the SBS Group - for the TV of the 2006 FIFA World Cup for ‘the territory defined as Flemish speaking Belgium’.
It is an exclusive gatekeeper deal and the two broadcasters will share the rights for the World Cup and a number of other FIFA events.
The majority of the European agreements for the broadcast of the 2006 FIFA World Cup are now in place, with recent announcements of deals with ARD/ZDF in Germany, HRT for Croatia; the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation - SRG SSR idC)e suisse - for the Swiss broadcasting rights; NOS for Holland; EESTI Television for Estonia; the Romanian Television Corporation (TVR) and Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation SA (ERT) for Greece.
