Sky Sports announces exclusive Bundesliga rights for UK & Ireland in four-season deal

Thursday 5 August 2021
  • Sky Sports becomes new home of Bundesliga in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland until 2025
  • Bundesliga now a partner with Sky Sports in UK & Ireland, Germany, Italy and Austria

Sky Sports has today announced that it has won the exclusive rights to show the Bundesliga in the UK and Ireland for the next four seasons.

As the home of German top-flight football in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, football fans will be able to tune in to Sky Sports to watch superstars including Borussia Dortmund pair Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham, 30-time Bundesliga champions FC Bayern München and relative newcomers RB Leipzig as they challenge for domestic glory from the 2021/22 to 2024/25 seasons.

Sky Sports’ coverage of the league will begin at 7.30pm on Friday 13 August with champions FC Bayern München travelling to Borussia Mönchengladbach, before 2012 league winners Borussia Dortmund take on Eintracht Frankfurt on the Saturday, kick off at 5.30pm.

In addition to the Bundesliga, Sky Sports will also broadcast the German Supercup live, which is an early “Klassiker” match-up, with Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern München going head-to-head on 17 August at Signal Iduna Park, kick off is at 7.30pm.

The premium fixture of each weekend will be shown live every Saturday at 5.30pm on Sky Sports Football, with further matches broadcast via Sky Sports linear or digital channels including Sky Sports YouTube.

The deal widens the Sky - Bundesliga partnership, with deals in place across the Sky Group in UK/ROI, Italy, Germany (including German language rights in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and South Tyrol) and Austria.

Sky Sports Managing Director Jonathan Licht said: “We’re delighted to have acquired the rights to the Bundesliga. Sky Sports customers will have the opportunity to watch some of the best players in the world as well as some of the leading teams in Europe.

“This new four-year agreement adds to our football offering in the UK & Ireland which already includes Premier League, EFL, Scottish Premiership and FA Women’s Super League as well as international action in the form of World Cup Qualifiers, placing Sky Sports as the home of live football.

Bundesliga International CEO Robert Klein added: “This is a partnership that will deliver the best of the Bundesliga week-in, week-out, through world class production and multi-platform coverage. With Sky as our partner, Bundesliga fans will benefit from a first class football viewing experience. This, paired with the Bundesliga's trademark attacking style of football, means that fans can expect an action-packed season – featuring some of the world’s best players and the most exciting up-and-coming talent.”

The Bundesliga joins an already busy roster of football rights in the Sky Sports portfolio including the Premier League, EFL, Scottish Premiership and more recently the Barclays FAWSL.

Away from football, further headline rights include Cricket’s newest format The Hundred, while England face India in five Test Matches this summer. Formula One sees the second half of the season get underway with the Belgian GP from August 27th. Golf sees Ryder Cup action live from Whistling Straits as well as the 17th edition of the Solheim Cup. On top of that, Anthony Joshua is scheduled to face Oleksandr Usyk in September live on Sky Sports Box Office and much, much more!

About Sky

Sky is Europe’s leading media and entertainment company and is proud to be part of Comcast Corporation. Across six countries, we connect our 23.4 million customers to the best entertainment, sports, news and arts including our own award-winning original content.

Our technology, including the market leading Sky Q, connects people to everything they love – with entertainment from Sky TV, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and BBC iPlayer, and apps like Spotify, YouTube, BBC Sounds, Highbrow, Fiit, and more, in one place, easy. Our streaming service NOW, brings viewers all the enjoyment of Sky with the flexibility of a contract-free service.

Building on the success of Sky Originals like Chernobyl, Gangs of London and Brassic, we are doubling our investment in original content by 2024 through Sky Studios. Sky News provides impartial and trustworthy journalism for free, Sky Arts is the UK’s only dedicated free-to-air arts channel making the arts accessible for everyone and Sky Sports, our leading sports broadcasting service brings customers some of the biggest and best global sporting events from the Premier League to Formula 1 and everything in-between. Our new TV and movie studio, Sky Studios Elstree, which will open in 2022, is expected to create over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in the UK over the first five years.

We believe that we can be a force for good in the communities in which we operate. We’re committed to being Europe’s first net zero carbon entertainment company by 2030 and we’re proud to be a Principal Partner and Media Partner of COP26. We take pride in our approach to diversity and inclusion: we’ve been recognised by The Times and Stonewall for our commitment to diversity and we’ve set ambitious 2025 targets to continue to increase diversity and representation. We’re also committed to investing £30million across our markets over three years to improve our approach to diversity and inclusion, and to tackle racial injustice.

About Bundesliga International

Bundesliga International is a full subsidiary of the DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga and responsible for connecting and inspiring football fans around the globe. Its main focus is to drive internationalisation by driving passion for the Bundesliga with contagious content using the highest technical innovation standards. Bundesliga International is marketing the audiovisual, sponsorship (partnership) rights, brand and digital licenses through a global network of 80 partners.

About the Bundesliga

The Bundesliga is the premier professional association football league in Germany. Established in 1963, the Bundesliga is comprised of 18 teams which operate on a system of promotion and relegation with the Bundesliga 2.