ESPN+ renews DFB-Pokal rights

Disney-owned ESPN has announced a renewed rights deal with the DFB-Pokal, Germany’s top domestic football cup competition.

The deal will see premium streamer ESPN+ broadcast a minimum of 40 DFB-Pokal matches each season through to 2026. All matches will be broadcast in English on ESPN+, with select games each season made available on ESPN networks and ESPN+ in English and Spanish.

With the DFB-Pokal, ESPN+ now holds exclusive US rights to three of the top-four domestic cup competitions in global football, including the English FA Cup and Spain’s Copa Del Rey.

In total, ESPN+ broadcasts approximately 2,000 football matches per year. The flagship football competitions carried by the streamer are LaLiga Santander and the German Bundesliga, while ESPN+ also broadcasts competitions including Liga MX, USL and US Open Cup. 

The US$6.99 per month ESPN+ launched in April 2018, and currently has more than 22 million subscribers. 

Sonia Gomez, ESPN senior director of programming and acquisitions, said: “The multi-year agreement for the German Cup further cements ESPNPlus’s position as the country’s leading soccer platform, and having the top-three domestic soccer cup competitions in one place demonstrates our commitment to serve soccer fans in the US.”

ESPN has also confirmed its renewed rights deal with the English Football League. Initially reported last week, ESPN+ will broadcast more than 182 English Football League matches live, an increase from 125 as per the previous deal. This includes 147 Sky Bet Championship regular season matches; 20 Sky Bet League One and League Two regular season matches; all 12 Sky Bet Play-Off Semi-Finals; and all three Sky BetPlay-Off Final matches for the Championship, League One and League Two.

The deal will also see ESPN+ serve as the broadcast platform for the Carabao Cup, with the streamer showing at least 30 matches from the competition per season. 

Ben Wright, EFL chief commercial officer said: “The EFL continues to be one of the world’s top football competitions, with vast appeal both at home and globally. The increase in the number of our matches being shown on ESPN+ shows that the demand for EFL content is stronger than ever, with the League competition and Carabao Cup attracting hundreds of millions of viewers across the world.