Less than 100 days before the start of the women’s soccer World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, it is still unclear whether the tournament will be broadcast on German television.
The bidding process for the broadcasting rights “has so far been unsuccessful as there have been no offers that recognize the true value of the largest women’s football tournament in the world,” FIFA said.
ARD and ZDF are currently not commenting on the negotiation poker with the world football association, nor are the RTL Group and ProSiebenSat.1. or the pay providers Sky and DAZN, which have recently been particularly active in women’s sports. At the tournament from July 20th to August 20th, the German vice European champions, headed by national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, will meet Morocco, Colombia and South Korea in the preliminary round.
“On the part of the DFB, we would like to see a large reach and visibility – both for the tournament as a whole, but above all for the games of our women’s national team in the interests of our fans and partners, in order to further promote the great development of women’s football in recent months,” says Holger Blask, Head of Marketing at the German Football Association (DFB). “We are therefore assuming that FIFA and the interested TV broadcasters will also assess the economic potential of the Women’s World Cup appropriately and in line with the market and find good solutions.”
Last year’s European Championship in England was a ratings hit in Germany: The live broadcast of the final between Germany and England (1:2) at Wembley Stadium was even the most-watched television program of the entire year with 17.952 million viewers.
