German soccer league eyes 4-year rights deal-report

FRANKFURT Oct 18 (Reuters) - Germany's DFL soccer association may switch to awarding media rights for Bundesliga matches for four years instead of three when it launches a new tender this month, Germany's Der Spiegel magazine reported.

It also quoted industry sources as saying Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) unit ESPN could enter the race for the rights and was in talks with German cable television operators about this.

Switching to four-year contracts could allow owners of the rights to plan better and could raise more money for the league, the magazine said, citing league sources as saying discussions with German anti-trust regulators were under way.

The magazine said German pay-TV group Premiere PREGn.DE had already registered for the new rights tender that starts on Oct. 31.

DFL was not immediately available for comment. Premiere said only that it wanted to continue its cooperation with the DFL.

Premiere, which lost out on the Bundesliga rights in the last tender and had to strike a deal with victor Arena, is counting on winning this time to lure more customers.

German anti-trust authorities had blocked the DFL's plans to boost the value of pay-TV broadcasts of live matches -- it now gets over 400 million euros ($539 million) a year -- by insisting coverage of highlights on free television start only late on Saturday.

According to media reports, the DFL is discussing a plan under which a match of the day would be played early on Saturday evening, the time when free-TV broadcaster ARD traditionally runs match highlights.

Spiegel quoted ARD director Fritz Raff as saying ARD vehemently opposed the idea and would bid much less for rights than before if this were the case. (Reporting by Michael Shields, editing by Swaha Pattanaik) (michael.shields@thomsonreuters.com, Reuters Messaging: michael.shields.reuters.com@reuters.net; +49 69 7565 1266)) ($1=.7424 Euro)