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German league aims to double TV soccer rights proceeds

Reuters - UK Focus

* DFL aims for 1.1-1.5 bln euros per season from 2017

* No single buyer can acquire all top league live TV rights

* DFL says "decent number" of parties interested in bidding (Adds DFL CEO quotes, details on auction rules, analyst comment)

FRANKFURT, April 12 (Reuters) - Germany's soccer league aims to double its proceeds from the sale of Bundesliga television soccer rights for the next four seasons to help clubs hold their own with international rivals.

The DFL is aiming to rake in 1.1-1.5 billion euros ($1.3-$1.7 billion) per season from 2017/18 until 2021/22, it said at the launch of the German rights auction on Tuesday - compared with an average of 748 million euros for the past four years.

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"Professional football needs a lot of money, and it will need more in future. The rights sale proceeds are one building block that we cannot afford to forego," DFL Chief Executive Christian Seifert told a news conference.

The auction will this time include a rule that no single buyer can acquire all media rights for live games of the top Bundesliga league, as Rupert Murdoch's Sky (LSE: BSY.L - news) did last time at a cost of 2.5 billion euros.

"That is likely to lead to more interested parties for the rights and so could fuel price inflation, which would be unhelpful for Sky Deutschland (LSE: 0OCM.L - news) ," wrote media analysts at Liberum bank, reiterating their "sell" recommendation on Sky stock.

Bundesliga soccer revenues are the second-highest in Europe but far behind those of England's Premier League.

Sky, under pressure from rival BT, agreed in February to pay a record 4.2 billion pounds ($6 billion) to secure the best Premier League matches from 2016 to 2019. The two companies will shell out a combined 5.14 billion pounds over three years.

Seifert said there was a "very decent number" of parties who had expressed interested in taking part in the auction. He declined to comment on names.

Apart from Sky, Britain's Perform Group (Other OTC: PRFGF - news) , German free-to-air broadcasters ProSiebenSat.1 and RTL , Discovery's Eurosport and Constantin Media's Sport1 are seen as potential bidders.

Close to half of Germany's population of 81 million watches the Bundesliga on television, with many viewing highlights packages on free-to-air TV. Sky Deutschland has 4.5 million subscribers in Germany and Austria.

($1 = 0.8756 euros)

($1 = 0.6986 pounds) (Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Mark Potter)