According to website Rapidtvnews.com, a Bundeskartellamt spokesperson speaking to German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said that centralized selling creates a cartel, and therefore the Bundesliga games must to a large extent continue to be screened on free-to-air television.
“If we allow a cartel like that, we have to ensure that viewers will benefit from its advantages… It certainly would not be appropriate if the Bundesliga coverage were to be almost exclusively moved to pay-TV”.
Responding to the news, the DFL said that there was no reason to assume that pay-television operators would lose the opportunity to broadcast Bundesliga matches.
The Forbes.com website reported DFL spokesman Christian Pfennig as saying that the two broadcast rights packages presented by the league in May, which cover the next three seasons, sufficient free-to-air coverage. The DFL is still waiting for regulatory approval of the packages.
