VBig hall and great enthusiasm in Cologne, but no live reporting on ARD and ZDF: Spurred on by three German victories at the start of the basketball championship, association president Ingo Weiss attacked the public broadcasters with drastic words. “Then I have to say that I find it quite ignorant and disappointing that the public broadcasters are not doing their job,” said the boss of the German Basketball Federation on Sunday in Cologne.
The fact that the hitherto spectacular encounters can only be seen live on the internet sports channel MagentaSport and not on ARD and ZDF in the classic way rankled Weiss visibly. The two broadcasters rejected the criticism. The national team defeated co-favorite Lithuania 109:107 after two overtimes on Sunday and thus achieved the historically best start at a European Championship. The arena was sold out on all three days, the team was convincing, but outside of the basketball bubble only a few people saw the strong start of the team around captain Dennis Schröder and young star Franz Wagner.
ARD and ZDF show excerpts of the games in their formats like on Sunday in the “Sportschau”, but unlike seven years ago they don’t broadcast live. Although every German game can also be viewed free of charge on MagentaSport, the range generated is not comparable to that of the public broadcasters. Weiss praised the “excellent transmission” of the Telekom subsidiary and emphasized that the rights holder had laid out a “red carpet” for ARD and ZDF in order to be able to transmit. The two broadcasters defend themselves against Weiss’ allegations.
“I don’t know where Mr. Weiss got his information from,” said ZDF sports director Thomas Fuhrmann on Monday of the dpa. “Deutsche Telekom has acquired the broadcasting rights for the live games. It stays that way.” ARD sports coordinator Axel Balkausky explained that his broadcaster reports “extensively” about the EM on sportschau.de, on television in the morning and midday magazine, in the “Sportschau” and the news programs as well as on the ARD radio waves.
“Against the background of the extensive sports reporting this summer (…) further live sections of the sport are unfortunately not possible at the moment,” said the ARD sports director. The decision against live games from the pan-European EM with games in Cologne and Berlin was made months ago.
But Weiss is not satisfied with that. “If you had made a deal in advance, for example about the opening game, then you could have talked about everything,” said Weiss, who admitted, however, that as president of the association he was not part of the negotiations and talks.
The 58-year-old can imagine that the broadcasters will still get involved if Germany makes it to the semi-finals or even the final. Above all, the time of the final would be rather unfavorable: It is doubtful that ARD or ZDF will free up prime time for basketball on Sunday evening at 8:30 p.m., even if it is successful. This would raise the question of rights again. Weiss said he could understand if MagentaSport no longer wanted to pick out the “cream particles” in such a case.
The ratings for the streaming service for the previous EM games are “phenomenal”, reported Weiss. MagentaSport does not usually communicate the numbers publicly. A problem with public broadcasters in recent years has often been that live basketball has not drawn enough viewers in front of the television. It was the same at the home European Championship in 2015, when even Dirk Nowitzki, a good atmosphere and attractive opponents in Berlin were not enough for good odds. This time the final round (September 10th to 18th) with round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and final will take place in Berlin.
