The termination of the agreement had been expected after the cartel office signalled that it would only approve the centralised allocation of the TV rights through DFL and Kirch under the condition that the highlights of Saturday’s matches would be shown on free-TV before 20.00 CET. This condition was turned down by both partners.
Kirch wanted to guarantee DFL an average income of €500 million per season between 2009 and 2015 - €3 billion in total. Pay-TV broadcaster Premiere said it was prepared to pay a higher price for the rights if granted more exclusivity. However, this would have only been possible if the free-TV coverage had been pushed back into a later Saturday night slot.
The league’s president, Reinhard Rauball, said: “After considering all options, our executive board has decided to cancel all contractual relations.”
