International pay-TV sports heavyweight BeIN has announced a new rights agreement in France covering German soccer’s DFB-Pokal top men’s knockout competition.
The “multi-season rights” agreement will see BeIN provide coverage of the competition from the 2025-26 campaign’s Round of 16 onward, which starts on December 2 and 3.
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For its coverage of this season’s Round of 16, BeIN will air every match, with at least two matches featuring commentary, including Borussia Dortmund’s clash against Bayer Leverkusen and Union Berlin’s match against Bayern Munich.
From the 2026-27 season, BeIN will broadcast the best of the competition from the Round of 64 onwards.
BeIN previously held French rights to DFB-Pokal until 2018, with the L’Equipe free-to-air digital channel taking over the rights in 2020 after a two-year blackout.
Florent Houzot, programs & on-air director for BeIN Sports France, said: “As a Bundesliga broadcaster since 2012, we are delighted to acquire the multi-season rights to the German Cup, complementing our German football offering and expanding our European football catalog.
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By GlobalData"This season, our subscribers will be able to watch all the Round of 16 games, and starting next season, we will broadcast all the top matches from the Round of 64 onwards.”
The rights add to BeIN’s German soccer coverage in France, which includes rights to the top-tier Bundesliga for the next four years.
That deal, renewed in June, covers all Bundesliga matches, as well as the season-opening Super Cup competition, and the season-ending promotion and relegation playoffs.
Running through the 2028-29 season, this new deal brings the total broadcast partnership between the pair to 15 years.
BeIN is perhaps the most prominent sports broadcaster in France, holding a myriad of elite soccer rights that include the country’s Ligue 1 and second-tier Ligue 2 domestic soccer championships, Spain’s top-flight LaLiga, and England’s FA Cup knockout competition and EFL lower tiers.
Most recently, the broadcaster also tied up the rights to European rugby union’s Champions Cup and Challenge Cup tournaments.
This latest deal, meanwhile, comes two months after German club soccer’s DFB governing body secured the remaining domestic rights package to the DFB-Pokal through the 2029-30 season.
Public broadcaster ZDF and commercial network RTL are set to share the awarded free-to-air (FTA) rights package from the 2026-27 campaign. The package also includes highlights and clips.
The DFB put a total of 15 games per season -14 regular matches and one final – on offer for FTA broadcasting during the new rights cycle. Public broadcaster ARD already secured a package of these rights in May, which will see it air seven matches per season, plus the final every other season.
ZDF and RTL will therefore share the remaining seven regular matches and the final in the seasons when ARD is not broadcasting the championship game.
The new agreement builds on ZDF's current rights to the competition, which it has been showing alongside ARD since 2022-23. That deal is due to expire at the end of the ongoing 2025-26 campaign.
It also completes the competition’s next four-year domestic rights cycle, with pay-TV heavyweight Sky already awarded the main package of rights (63 matches) after an initial rights tender in May.
