Germany's Sky Sport is set to cover over 200 NFL American football games per year for the next three seasons, through an expanded rights deal struck by the league with Sky's owner, RTL Deutschland.
To enable this increase in coverage, a dedicated Sky Sport NFL channel will launch at the start of the 2026-27 season, with the deal then running through 2028-29.
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The agreement covers the entire DACH region – Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein – and was unveiled yesterday.
In terms of live games, RTL will continue to show two games each Sunday – at 19:00 and 22:00 Central European Time – while the RTL+ service is set to live-stream an additional 19:00 game.
Sky Sport, meanwhile, will also cover two games exclusively on that day. This comes in addition to the combined broadcaster's coverage of Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football, and Monday Night Football.
The original RTL-NFL deal for the current cycle was announced in late 2022.
Earlier this year, another rights tie-up in Germany and the DACH region, with sports subscription service DAZN, was terminated ahead of schedule. That agreement – also unveiled in September 2022 – was due to finish next February, but instead came to an end following the 2025-26 season.
The centrepiece of the new Sky channel will be NFL Redzone, produced in the US and aired every Sunday evening (Central European Time).
In addition, Sky Sport NFL will cover the NFL's weeknight games through replays, as well as showing additional NFL shoulder content each week.
Frank Robens, RTL Deutschland's executive vice president for sports, commented: "The NFL is one of the most successful and important sports properties in our portfolio. We are delighted to expand our partnership with the league. The enhanced rights allow us to offer fans the complete NFL week from a single source, setting new standards in scale, quality, and variety.”
Laura Louisy, senior director of international media strategy and business development at the NFL, added: "Together with RTL and Sky, we are creating a comprehensive NFL experience across free-to-air television, pay-TV, and streaming while investing in new formats to reach existing fans and attract new audiences.”
The expanded rights also include rights to all NFL games staged in Europe for the next three seasons – including the game in Munich later this year between the Detroit Lions and New England Patriots.
Germany has long been looked at by the NFL as one of its key international expansion markets.
The first NFL game there took place in November 2022, and five have now taken place overall.
