Sky Loses Key Soccer TV Rights in Germany as Streamers Take Over

Stefan Nicola, Bloomberg News

MUNICH, GERMANY - DECEMBER 11: Kingsley Coman of FC Bayern Munich runs with the ball under pressure from Moussa Sissoko of Tottenham Hotspur during the UEFA Champions League group B match between Bayern Muenchen and Tottenham Hotspur at Allianz Arena on December 11, 2019 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images) , Photographer: Michael Regan/Getty Images Europe

(Bloomberg) -- Comcast Corp.’s Sky Ltd. dominated coverage of Europe’s top club soccer competition in Germany for the past two decades. Now the streamers are taking over.

Billionaire Len Blavatnik’s DAZN and Amazon.com Inc. edged out Sky to secure exclusive rights to stream the UEFA Champions League tournament to their German customers for three seasons from 2021. The competition is prime sports real estate, featuring top clubs such as Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Manchester City.

Sky made every effort to retain the rights after owning them for about two decades, said Carsten Schmidt, the chief executive officer of its German unit.

”We have an economically clear and responsible view of the value of sports rights,” he said in an emailed statement. “Keeping our customers also in mind, we were unwilling to go beyond the high value that we attach to these rights.”

A representative for DAZN had no immediate comment.

The loss puts Sky under greater pressure to retain exclusive rights to the Bundesliga, Germany’s domestic soccer league that’s still a key pay-TV selling point in Europe’s biggest economy. Those rights are going on sale next year.

--With assistance from David Hellier.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stefan Nicola in Berlin at snicola2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rebecca Penty at rpenty@bloomberg.net, Thomas Pfeiffer, John Lauerman