German commercial broadcaster RTL has secured free-to-air rights to a number of significant basketball games from this year’s EuroBasket national teams competition.
A deal has now been unveiled between RTL and Deutsche Telekom, the German telecommunications giant, giving RTL rights covering all of the German national team’s games in the 2025 FIBA European Men’s Basketball Championship (EuroBasket), as well as rights to certain other fixtures in the knockout rounds, including the final.
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In addition, RTL Deutschland will also provide extensive highlights of all games from this year’s EuroBasket, set to be held between August 27 and September 14, in Latvia, Finland, Poland, and Cyprus.
Deutsche Telekom holds full rights to the tournament through a deal unveiled in February 2021, and will also provide free coverage of Germany’s fixtures – through a separate, later, tie-up – on its various Telekom platforms.
The MagentaTV and MagentaSport over-the-top streaming services owned by Deutsche Telekom, meanwhile, will cover all 76 matches from the 2025 EuroBasket, and will in total provide up to seven hours of live programming each day from the basketball tournament.
The same agreements between Deutsche Telekom and RTL were also in place for the 2022 EuroBasket, which was part-hosted by Germany (alongside the Czech Republic, Italy, and Georgia).
Frank Robens, RTL’s head of sports, has said: “Basketball is booming in Germany, and we're delighted to present the next major championship to fans on free TV. Together with Telekom, we're bringing the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 games to the big stage, creating a unique live experience for all sports enthusiasts.”
Dorothea Jacob, MagentaTV’s vice president for proposition and content, added: “As usual, we will provide basketball fans with comprehensive and authentic on-site coverage of all EuroBasket 2025 matches with a top team of presenters, commentators, and experts. Fans can look forward to an innovative presentation with exciting live broadcasts, interviews, on-site reports, and behind-the-scenes stories, thus providing outstanding sports entertainment."
In terms of other top-level basketball available on MagentaTV, the platform also holds rights to action from the EuroLeague club competition, as well as to this year’s Women’s EuroBasket (running across late June in Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, and Greece).
Deutsche Telekom also covered action from the 2023 FIBA Men’s World Cup, with public-service broadcaster ZDF sub-licensing rights to the final (in which Germany beat Serbia).
For this year’s men’s EuroBasket, meanwhile, in October commercial broadcaster TV3 secured rights across Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, through an extension of its existing tie-up with FIBA.
