BT Sport has enhanced its line-up of live European football by securing the rights to broadcast FIFA World Cup champions Germany’s home friendly matches.
The channel’s coverage of the 2014 world champions in action begins with the mouth-watering re-run of this summer’s World Cup Final, pitting Joachim Low’s side against Argentina on Wednesday, September 3.
BT has also renewed its deal to screen the DFB Cup, Germany’s premier domestic cup competition, regarded as the equivalent of England’s FA Cup.
The tournament, won by Bayern Munich last season with a 2-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund after extra time, features teams from the top two tiers of German football – the Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga – which is also televised by BT Sport.
Details of BT Sport’s live games from the 2014/15 DFB Cup will be confirmed at a later date.
These latest deals build on BT Sport’s extensive European football line-up which includes Italy’s Serie A, France’s Ligue 1, and, Germany’s Bundesliga, home to the likes of Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mario Goetze who powered Germany to success in the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
Simon Green, head of BT Sport, said: “BT Sport now offers a feast of European football action for fans. Added to Italy’s Serie A, France’s Ligue 1, and, Germany’s Bundesliga, today’s announcement gives our viewers a fantastic window into football on the continent.
“Our exclusively live TV coverage of Germany v Argentina will provide an early test of the World Champions’ credentials.”
BT Sport’s rights to Germany’s home friendly matches, its first major international football rights deal, excludes matches that involve teams from the British Isles, with Sky (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) and ITV (England) holding existing rights to screen away friendlies under seperate deals with the home nations’ football associations.
Sky and ITV will also share live rights to all UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers over the next two years, following the introduction of a new centralised broadcasting arrangement which meant UEFA took control of selling TV rights to qualifying matches, rather than individual national associations, though they do retain the right to sell friendly matches.
Previously, BT Sport announced it had signed a deal for up to four exclusively live matches a week from the Portuguese Primeira Liga.
The Portuguese rights include exclusively live home and away matches played by the league’s ‘Big Three’ teams, current league champions Benfica, Porto FC and Sporting Lisbon.
The match forms part of a thrilling football line-up on BT Sport in September which includes exclusively live TV coverage of the Barclays Premier League clashes between Arsenal v Manchester City (September 13) and Liverpool v Everton (September 27), alongside top-tier football including the UEFA Europa League.
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