German pay-TV operator Premiere has secured a deal with Deutsche Telekom to broadcast live games from Germany’s soccer league online and on IPTV. But as Premiere doesn’t have any Internet subscribers of its own, media experts widely doubt whether this will significantly change the fragile prospects for the future of Premiere, reports DJN.
The backstory: Last year, German football chiefs awarded a 420 million-euros-per-year live match rights deal to cable outfit Unity Media. Match highlights were won by public broadcaster ARD and free channel DSF. IPTV rights went to Deutsche Telekom, and that’s who Premiere has sublicensed the rights from.
Premiere and DT said that more details about the planned product offering will be announced in coming weeks. DT IPTV footprint is only 10 German cities by this summer and that it aims to have 50 German cities linked to it by the end of 2007…so any PRemiere subscribers would first have to get DT’s IPTV service to make this to work.
Bloomberg: Premiere’s soccer broadcasts will also be available on computer desktops through DT’s T-Online’s Internet platform. DT is investing as much as 3 billion euros in a fiber-optic network that can be used to transmit data such as live soccer matches over the Web. T-Online International is starting trials this month of combined digital TV, Internet and phone services.