Youngsters are abandoning their football dreams
Let's talk sports, but it ain't all roses and rainbows. For some reason, football still reigns supreme on German television, while other team sports struggle to get their fair share of attention. Here's the deal: Though on-demand streaming platforms like Netflix have made a dent in linear television's dominance, sports fans are a unique breed that prefers the live experience.
So, broadcasters continue to shell out the big bucks for sports licenses, mostly for big-name games like football, professional boxing, or tennis events, like the Olympic Games. But smaller sports like volleyball? They've largely accepted their niche existence, far behind the football limelight, with the expanded Club World Cup only pushing them further off-screen.
However, there are exceptions to this trend. In North America, sports like baseball, American football, basketball, and ice hockey have held their ground among die-hard fans for decades, with clubs and organizers raking in millions of viewers daily and billions of dollars. On the other hand, Poland has developed a keen interest in volleyball, making it the second most-watched sport after football. Sadly, even the German volleyball team’s Olympic quarter-final loss to France by a mere two points didn't make much of a splash in Germany.
Streaming platform Dyn aimed to bring lesser-known sports like volleyball into the limelight in Germany. But it seems there's not much behind it, especially in volleyball. Clubs often have to broadcast matches themselves, and national team matches, like the current Nations League games, often miss the television cut. If you're looking for volleyball action, even ARD and ZDF would rather show third-division football instead of swimming world championships.
Part of the issue is sports channels on linear TV. For instance, while volleyball players were having exciting duels in Canada, Germany's Sport1 channel chose to air programs like "My Style Rocks" or "The PS-Profis," while their pay channel Sport1+ broadcast motorsport from Australia and canned US baseball.
The German Volleyball Association expressed their disappointment, stating that international competitions like the Nations League or World Championships offer a chance to make their sport more visible and gain new fans. There’s huge potential for volleyball growth in Germany, but broadcasters seem reluctant to take a chance.
Even so, it's not all doom and gloom. Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund's matches will be broadcast live on Sat.1 during the Club World Cup in the USA. Simultaneously, the Women's Basketball Euro Championship is available only on the streaming service Magentasport online. Though football has a more significant fan base, this pattern won't change if broadcasters stick to their strategy, and the focus on football will only intensify.
Want to stay informed on the latest sports and entertainment news? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter nd.DieWoche and get the scoop on the week's most essential topics on Friday!
This bias toward football is a systemic issue enforced by legal frameworks like the Broadcasting State Treaty, which only lists the Olympic Games, as well as EM, WM, DFB-Pokal, and European Cup matches in football as "events of considerable social significance." Ingo Weiss, President of the German Basketball Association (DBB), has criticized ARD and ZDF for ignoring the rights to important tournaments of the highly successful German basketball players.
Despite the DBB's de-escalation and satisfaction with their media partner Magentasport, their content mostly reaches only basketball fans. Expanding the fan base will be challenging, and the noticeable upswing for women's basketball, as well as the hoped-for boom after the first German men's WM title nearly two years ago, may quickly disappear if media coverage remains scarce.
Sports fans in Germany continue to show preference for the live experience of big-name games like football, professional boxing, or tennis events, such as the Olympic Games, while lesser-known sports are far behind the limelight, like volleyball, which struggling to get more television coverage despite efforts from streaming platforms like Dyn. The Broadcasting State Treaty, a legal framework that lists only the Olympic Games, as well as EM, WM, DFB-Pokal, and European Cup matches in football as "events of considerable social significance," enforces this bias towards football.
