In August 2025, the Bundesliga introduced an revolutionary broadcast contract in the United Kingdom and Ireland. A mix of conventional media and content material creators, it definitely brought about a stir.
The response stunned Peer Naubert.
Naubert is the CEO of Bundesliga International and, eight months on, he’s reflecting on that response and what has adopted since.
“When we did the announcement, I was really taken aback by the positive impact and the buzz we created,” he tells The Athletic. “And since then, we’ve been really positively surprised by the viewership numbers and by the co-operation with our partners, because they’re demanding more and more content each week.”
It’s a hybrid settlement. The Bundesliga’s Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon video games are proven on Sky Sports and Amazon Prime, respectively, however the Friday evening fixture is shared between the BBC and YouTube, the place it seems on the Bundesliga’s personal channel, in addition to creator networks The Overlap and That’s Football, a channel hosted by the creator Mark Goldbridge.
The Bundesliga launched its first free ad-supported tv (FAST) channel in the UK with Samsung this season, and additionally exhibits some 2.Bundesliga motion through its personal YouTube channel.
It was a primary for one in every of the main European leagues in the UK, and the non-traditional nature of the settlement meant that it was, comfortably, the most media curiosity the Bundesliga had obtained for a global rights bundle announcement in recent times. It was a special street taken for good purpose.
The Bundesliga’s long-term broadcasting accomplice in the UK is Sky Sports. They nonetheless present the league’s Saturday evening fixture, which is commonly the largest recreation of the weekend. However, the Premier League’s command of its home market has left little house for added programming.
Or finances. One of the challenges going through the broadcasting market is a shift in focus, from pay TV and streaming companies alike, away from buying new subscribers and in direction of profitability. The period of accumulating new properties and writing huge cheques is, for now, at an finish. Serie A, La Liga and Ligue 1 have all confronted important difficulties in recent times and a spread of setbacks.
So, the Bundesliga — like each league aside from the Premier League — must assume creatively. Partly due to these points, but in addition due to legislative restraints on possession.
The 50+1 rule, mandating that majority possession stays with supporters, discourages the form of funding that has flooded into the Premier League, bringing with it an array of stars. By distinction, German soccer’s virtues are its proud regional traditions, its fan tradition, and the vibrancy of its environment, none of that are fairly as easy to export. The undeniable fact that Bayern Munich have received 11 league titles in 12 years is inconvenient, too.
But for the Bundesliga and Naubert, these have been prompts that justified making an attempt one thing completely different.
“It just didn’t make sense to employ the same tactics that have worked in the past,” Naubert says. “We have great, longstanding partners around the world, and this is still a key part of the puzzle. But to continue making progress, we also need to think outside the box.
“We make doing our homework a priority. We spoke with all the players in the market and decided that a multi-platform broadcast mix delivers reach and revenues. We not only maintain our position on the leading channels but also extend our visibility. Catching everyone’s attention is another good sign.”
The collection of the new companions was logical. The BBC is the BBC; a robust model identify trusted by older viewers with conventional broadcasting habits. The Overlap and That’s Football clearly enchantment to completely different demographics, who devour their leisure in several methods, however every has grow to be a robust, influential voice, albeit pitched in another way.
But that selection is solely the level.
The Bundesliga is proven on The Overlap and Mark Goldbridge’s That’s Football YouTube channel (Daniela Porcelli/Getty Images)
Naubert says, “They were among the biggest and best football creators in the UK. But they are also gathering exactly the right audience — 50 per cent of which is under 35.”
The outcomes have been encouraging. In the UK market, in contrast with the viewing figures in 2024-25 (when Sky Sports was the sole rights holder), the viewers by the first 5 video games of the season was 15 instances bigger. During that five-game interval, the cumulative YouTube viewers alone grew by 57 per cent. There has additionally been a 150 per cent enhance in social media mentions for the Bundesliga in the UK.
Perhaps the most vital determine, nonetheless, is that as of matchday 10, 57 per cent of the UK viewers who watched Bundesliga video games on the two YouTube channels have been aged between 13 and 34. Studies counsel the common UK-based soccer fan is 40.2 years outdated.
The creators are having fun with it, too. Goldbridge — actual identify Brent Di Cesare — advised The Athletic: “I’ve really enjoyed it. In a football sense, there have been some big eye-openers: how much better the game flows with officials and players constantly getting the game going and penalising delays.
“In the recent north London derby, I counted four minutes lost on players preparing to take long throws. There are far fewer goalless draws, too, and the crowds are incredible, mainly because of fan ownership.”
Dave Bouchard from The Overlap additionally spoke to The Athletic about the partnership and a few of the efficiency information it has produced: “It’s been fantastic to stream live Friday night Bundesliga football, one of the best leagues in the world, on The Overlap, and we have witnessed great audience integration figures.
“Over 1.5 millon people have watched live football and social clips with us, and more than 7.5 million watched our greatest German player of all time ‘corridor cam’.”
Harrison, from The Overlap Breakdown, has been offering tactical evaluation and previews of the video games, too, and he tells The Athletic that he’s additionally loved the expertise.
“Having direct access to match footage and data has been invaluable. Through the preview episodes we produce for every Friday night game streamed on The Overlap, I’ve been able to explore teams that many viewers might not know too well, while closely following emerging talents such as Can Uzun, Yan Diomande and Said El Mala.
“With so many high-profile moves out of the league this summer, including Benjamin Sesko, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike and Xavi Simons, it’s been a unique experience to analyse players of that level week in, week out and assess how their careers might develop.
“Overall, it’s been a genuinely rewarding experience and one I’ve learned a great deal from. More broadly, it feels like a positive reflection of where the game is heading and how accessible football is becoming around the world.”
There are separate challenges to face for the Bundesliga. The first is to make it as straightforward as potential for brand spanking new followers to seek out. But uncooked visibility is only one step. These YouTube audiences are being drawn to the channels and the creators in the first occasion, not the soccer. This is a begin, not an answer.
“But I really like creators,” says Naubert. “We see them as cultural bridges rather than media channels. They reach into new communities. Creators help people discover the Bundesliga, but then we, as a league, must give them a reason to stay, whether it be through shared values, narratives or individual personalities of the players. That’s our job.”
This is the fan journey. Can this result in somebody from the Friday YouTube viewers taking an curiosity in Bundesliga video games throughout the remainder of the weekend? Might that individual someday journey to Germany to observe a recreation, over time changing into a fan of the membership? Can that migration be parlayed right into a extra profitable rights bundle in the future?
These are the calculations — the sum that no person fairly has the components for but.
There’s purpose for optimism, although, given the Bundesliga’s current progress in Brazil.
In 2018, the league had 12million registered followers in the nation. By 2024, that quantity had doubled, to 24million, making the Bundesliga the fastest-growing worldwide league in Brazil. Before the 2023-24 season, a brand new rights bundle in the area was agreed, with placing similarities to what’s now in place in the UK.
The tranches of video games have been cut up between SporTV and SportyNet, that are pay-TV networks; RedeTV, Cultura, and X Sports, every of which broadcast free-to-air; and, lastly, digital streamers Canal Goat and Caze TV, each of which have tens of millions of followers on Instagram and TikTok.
Brazil is a precedence marketplace for the Bundesliga. On a player-by-player foundation, it’s the most represented nation — aside from Germany — in the league’s historical past. Lucio, Diego, Grafite, Ze Roberto and Paulo Sergio all spent the prime of their careers in the Bundesliga. Clearly, that helps. Nevertheless, the progress over the previous few years is startling.
During the 2024-25 season, Bundesliga matchdays in Brazil averaged a complete viewers of 5million — with Bayern vs Dortmund averaging greater than 2million every time — which represents a rise of greater than 800 per cent on equal figures from a decade in the past. This makes it the most-watched European league in the nation.
A brand new rights bundle was agreed in November 2025, once more together with Caze TV and Canal Goat, and is because of start forward of the 2026-27 season. Mostly working with the similar set of companions since the 2023-24 season, revenues have grown roughly fivefold on this time, which suggests the mannequin is working.
No two broadcasting territories are the similar. Clearly, the Bundesliga has strengths in Brazil — and South America as a complete — that it doesn’t possess in the UK and Ireland. So, it’s not so simple as taking a technique from one area and utilizing it in one other. But Naubert and the Bundesliga wish to apply what they’ve realized — to assume long run and to adapt to a market which is altering all the time.
“For us, this is a test-and-learn approach. We had clear targets in terms of audience growth and penetration, but while being the first to explore new broadcast opportunities, we also have to remain open to seeing what happens. And this is a three-to-five-year project, not one year.
“Are we happy with what we have at the moment? We have significantly increased our viewership while also maintaining our revenues and being in a much younger market, which hopefully prepares us for the future.
“And that’s what we perceive as success right now. Do I have the proof that in 10 years we’re going to see significant fandom among what by then will be thirty-somethings? I don’t know the answer to that.
“But now we’re laying the foundation to prepare ourselves for that future, and the clear answer was not to remain static or one-dimensional.
“I’m 100 per cent convinced that this is the right thing to be doing.”
