Our take...
The football deal is a return to traditional virtues after previous attempts to reposition Sat.1 have failed to bring the desired results. Football was a key driver of Sat.1's initial success and key branding tool when the station held the Bundesliga rights from 1992-2003. However, the channel could not recoup the þ80m it paid annually for the rights and eventually ended its Bundesliga involvement in 2003.
Sat.1's audience share has been on a downward slope since the end of 2006 when shares dropped from 10.7 per cent at the beginning of the year to 9.0 per cent in December. The ProSiebenSat.1 parent group has since introduced new programming and repositioned the station in an attempt to raise its profile. However, although audience shares were on the up in the first five months of 2008, in crucial time-slots, the channel is frequently competing with second-tier in-house and RTL group channels like Kabel 1 and VOX. In contrast, audience ratings for recent Champions League games on Sat.1 have been a success and the final match achieved a market share of 29.7 per cent.
The full return to football with an extensive rights package is a more cohesive attempt to boost Sat.1 ratings by brand-building content. This move is complemented by a strategy change at ProSiebenSat.1 in June 2008, giving the individual channels more power over their marketing and branding better to address their key target demographics. Prospects for Sat.1 are good as Screen Digest expects the sluggish German advertising market to recover after 2009 with a CAGR of 3 per cent between 2010 and 2012. Sat.1's success is crucial for ProSiebenSat.1 because investment in the football package has cut investment in other programming for the second time after ProSiebenSat.1 already announced cost savings in programming following the negative first quarter 2008 results.