Premiere Inks Deal with Arena on Bundesliga Matches

MUNICH, July 14: German pay-TV platform Premiere has reached
a deal with cable operator Unity Media’s Arena that gives it the rights to air
Bundesliga matches.

In December, Premiere lost out to Unity Media on the
television rights to the German football league matches. It has been working
ever since to secure a deal with Arena for the next three seasons. It already
has a deal with Deutsche Telekom that allows it to broadcast the games online.
Premiere will offer the matches on the Arena channel now available on the
platform for 14.90 euros per month. It will reach about 9.6 million homes.

The Arena channel is also available on Unity Media’s three
cable platforms, ish, iesy and Tele Columbus, and on Kabel BW.

“The Premiere-Arena offering is good news for hundreds of
thousands of football fans and particularly for Premiere’s subscribers,” said
Georg Kofler, the CEO of Premiere. “For many Premiere subscribers, this
basically means that nothing will change next season. With Arena on Premiere,
they can enjoy the Bundesliga live in the future.”

The next Bundesliga season starts on August 11.