The sports rights agency Sportfive, negotiating for UEFA, accepted the offer of SportA, the sports rights agency of ARD and ZDF. The agreement is subject to the approval of the boards of ARD and ZDF.
“The German public broadcasters will provide all major matches in the way the German audience is used to - free of charge and with coverage of the highest standard,” said Fritz Raff, Chairman of ARD.
Director General of ZDF, Markus Schaechter, added, “The difficult negotiations of the last one and a half years have now paid off: we have secured the football highlight of the year 2008 for the public broadcasters on reasonable terms.”
The agreement grants ARD/ZDF the exclusive rights to exploit 27 out of the 31 matches EURO 2008 on a live basis on free-TV. Additionally, ARD/ZDF will be able to show highlights of all 31 matches.
Among the 27 matches are all the German national team matches, the opening match, the quarter-final matches, the semi-final matches and the final.
The agreement leaves space for an additional pay-TV broadcaster to broadcast all 31 matches EURO 2008.
The agreement also enables the radio channels of ARD to broadcast all matches.
