The round of 16 match between Austria and Turkey will not be broadcast on public television. This is causing a lot of trouble on social networks. How this happened – and why not every European Championship match is shown on free-to-air TV.
There is great excitement on social networks, especially in the German-Turkish community, that the round of 16 Austria against Turkey will not be shown on public television or will not be freely available.
The fact that in a country where there are millions of people with Turkish roots that this game, of all things, is not shown on free TV is considered “not right” by one person and “outrageous” by another . “Imagine you’re Turkish, your country is in the knockout stage for the first time in 16 years, EVERY other game on TV is free except for your teams,” says one user. People keep asking why this game of all things is not available for free.
Some politicians also joined in the outrage. Özcan Mutlu from the Greens wrote on X: “Ignorance, arrogance or what is it?!”. “Thousands of meaningless Instagram / Tiktok channels are funded but let mass spectacles fall by the wayside,” wrote SPD politician Tim Vollert.
Why is the game not shown on ARD?
HIGH and ZDF are Telekom sub-licensees for the European Championships. The IS HIGH In this context, the broadcast rights have been obtained for 17 games, which can be selected according to certain criteria and a coordinated procedure. For this reason, not all European Championship games can be seen live on free TV, including the round of 16 between Austria and Turkey. Confidentiality was agreed regarding the match selection procedure.
However, fans can watch the game for free, for example at official fan festivals in many cities.
Why is Magenta privileged?
The distribution is based on a complex contract. Telekom secured all media rights for the European Championships in Germany in 2019. It then shared a large portion of the EM rights in an extensive contract HIGH/ZDF and in return received broadcast licenses for all matches at the 2020 European Championship and all matches at the 2022 World Cup.
Why aren’t all European Championship games shown on free-to-air TV?
Users have also expressed their anger that all 16 rounds of the European Championship are generally not shown for free. “It is a shame that a paid broadcaster is even allowed to get rights to one of the biggest international football competitions. Who decides that the general public is not allowed to see it?”
UEFA sells the broadcast rights and can award the rights according to the offers. The contract for all games in the German market went to Telekom for the European Championship, HIGH and ZDF received sub-licenses from Telekom. There is no legal requirement that all tournament games be shown on free-to-air television.
The sports show said this on Instagram: “Unfortunately, these are the rules, and this is how the television broadcasting rights business works now. We can understand if there is dissatisfaction because of this. Unfortunately, the fighting for football rights is becoming more and more expensive.” Of the HIGH-Sports Coordination says: “Please understand that we will not comment further on this matter for reasons of contractually agreed confidentiality.”
What’s next with the transitions?
From the quarter-finals onwards, every game has been played by either side HIGH, ZDF or RTL. According to the Telekom website, the round of 16 match between Austria and Turkey will be the last game to be shown exclusively on MagentaTV. In total, Magenta had five exclusive games. RTL broadcasts twelve matches, ten of which are in the group stage, one round of 16 and a quarter final.
HIGH and ZDF will broadcast 34 of the 51 matches live – including all the matches of the German team, the opening match, the semi-finals and the final. The quarter finals between Germany and Spain will take place on Friday at 6 pm HIGH, the European Championship final on 14 July. at 9 pm also held in the HIGH.
All European Championship games are also available there Download the soundtrack to the sports show.