Deutsche Telekom has renewed its existing rights agreements with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the German Basketball Federation (DBB) and Euroleague Ventures.
The German telecommunications company’s new deal with FIBA Media – a joint venture between DAZN Group and FIBA – runs until 2025, covering the rescheduled FIBA EuroBasket 2022, the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 and the FIBA EuroBasket 2025, along with qualification games.
The EuroBasket competition has been postponed until 2022 after the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games were delayed as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. The German capital of Berlin and the city of Cologne will co-host the tournament.
“We are delighted about the extensions with Euroleague Basketball,” said Henning Stiegenroth, Head of Content and Sponsoring at Deutsche Telekom. “This shows that we are a reliable partner and can continue to offer our fans first-class, exclusive basketball.”
In a separate deal, Deutsche Telekom has extended its agreement with the DBB until the end of 2023 in a deal which encompasses the rights to German national basketball fixtures and the German Supercup.
The broadcaster will also carry the EuroLeague and EuroCup for a further two seasons – 2021/22 and 2022/23 – after penning a deal with Euroleague Ventures, the entity formed by the EuroLeague Basketball and the IMG agency.
Alex Ferrer Kristjansson, Marketing and Communication Senior Director at Euroleague Basketball, added: “We are extremely satisfied by renewing our commitment with Deutsche Telekom for two more seasons. Germany is one of our most important strategic markets with an enormous growth margin and we are developing a specific market strategy to increase our footprint in the territory.”
Meanwhile, the German Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) has launched its own Twitch channel. The easyCredit BBL channel will feature a mix of sports, entertainment and gaming content, including live streaming and interaction with viewers.
The BBL already has plans to run a ‘digital All-Star Day’, providing coverage of the annual All-Star game whilst fans cannot be in attendance.
