FRANKFURT (AFX) - German football body DFL said it would not accept pay-TV broadcaster Premiere AG transmitting Bundesliga football games by satellite together with rights holder Deutsche Telekom AG, according to a newspaper interview.
'This would not be acceptable,' DFL president Werner Hackmann told German daily Bild in an interview.
'This would mean you would not even have to be a Telekom customer to view the programmes,' he said.
Hackemann said contracts signed between DFL and Deutsche Telekom allow the telecoms firm to transmit Bundesliga games live and in full length via its online platform T-Online.
'But one thing is clear: we will not accept that our pay-TV partner Arena is weakened. In an extreme case, Telekom could lose its Internet rights.'
Deutsche Telekom in December won the rights to broadcast Bundesliga games on the Internet for the coming three seasons, starting this summer.
The pay-TV rights were awarded to sports rights firm Arena, in a severe blow to rival bidder Premiere, which has the exclusive rights for the current 2005/2006 season.
Sources and media reports have said Premiere and Deutsche Telekom are currently in talks to form a partnership under which Premiere would produce Bundesliga content for the telecoms giant, which could include transmission via satellite. newsdesk@afxnews.com zb/jfb/cml COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2005. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News. AFX News and AFX Financial News Logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited