William Gallagher
Germany's Bundesliga has reportedly been in talks with Apple about Apple TV+ taking over streaming rights from ESPN from the start of the 2026/27 football season.
Apple is regularly reported to be exploring the addition of European football to its live sport streaming, particularly with both the UK and Dutch leagues. Now according to World Soccer Talk, the company has been in talks with Germany's professional association football league, the Bundesliga, best known worldwide for the team FC Bayern Munich.
Reportedly, ESPN has the exclusive streaming-only rights to the Bundesliga for the US, with a contract that began in 2020.
The deal is currently said to be worth $30 million annually to the Bundesliga, and the contract is set to conclude at the end of the 2025/26 season. The Bundesliga's streaming-only deal with Canadian service DAZN is also due to expire at the end of the season in 2026 — and so do an unspecified number of other worldwide deals.
Apple tends to want worldwide rights to everything it acquires, so it's possible that Apple TV+ may bring German football to a global audience.
However, unnamed sources told World Soccer Talk that the Bundesliga's talks with Apple have so far been preliminary. Neither Apple nor Bundesliga have commented on the discussion.
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
7 Comments
Bundesliga is fine but I would love that Apple TV+ gets streaming rights to the Premier League.
The Bundesliga? The most boring football league in all of Europe? Unless Apple plans to use its financial might and global footprint to restructure it to make it more interesting, no one will tune in. Premier League is the only truly competitive league.
Bundesliga would be huge for Apple.