ARD and ZDF, Germany's two prominent public-service broadcasters, have extended their rights deal covering a wide swathe of matches played by the country's women's national soccer team.
Through a tie-up unveiled yesterday and running until 2031, both networks will air the team's games in the UEFA Women's Nations League, as well as qualifiers in advance of the UEFA 2029 Women's European Championship and the FIFA 2031 Women's World Cup.
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The tie-up also covers international friendly fixtures played by the side – traditionally, one of global women's soccer's powerhouses – during the next five years.
A renewal agreement to that effect was reached by SportA (the rights agency for the two networks) with German soccer's governing body, the DFB.
The unveiling of these rights comes just before two Germany friendly fixtures. On October 9 (this coming Friday), Germany will take on Australia in Karlsruhe – with coverage provided by ZDF – before they play Japan four days later in Bremen, with the latter game to be shown live by ARD.
Christine Strobl, program director at ARD, commented: "ARD and ZDF continue to stand by women's football in Germany, and with the extension of our agreement with the DFB, we are making a clear statement of this. We are very pleased to be able to continue showing the German women's football team live and comprehensively on ARD."
The German national team has, for a lengthy period, been one of the heavyweights of international women's soccer – of the 13 UEFA Women’s European Championships to have taken place so far, they have won eight, and have also won the FIFA Women’s World Cup twice.
The current tie-up between ZDF and ARD, and the DFB, runs through until the end of 2027.
ARD and ZDF, meanwhile, also both hold live rights to the top-tier women's domestic league in Germany, the Frauen-Bundesliga (10 matches per season, combined), alongside streaming service DAZN and Magenta Sport. That tie-up expires at the end of the ongoing 2026-27 campaign.
The two public broadcasters are also covering a selection of German men's national team games through 2028 (qualifiers for the European Championships, as well as the Nations League), as is DAZN.
