German online football rights attract £300m offer

Bundesliga bidding bonanza...

Deutsche Telekom's internet arm, T-Online, has bid up to E500m (£315m) for the rights to broadcast German league football over the web until 2007, underlining the importance of the internet as the next major battleground for lucrative sports media rights. According to a report in the Financial Times Deutschland, the bid is part of a E1bn (£630m) consortium offer with German Media firm Tele München Group which includes both TV and internet rights. The rights are on offer because of the bankruptcy of Kirch Media, which previously owned them. The internet is an increasingly difficult area for sports rights owners because despite the small audiences broadcast events receive, TV rights owners are worried their exclusivity will be compromised. Yahoo! has the rights to broadcast world cup games, but is only allowed to show highlights packages two hours after the actual games.