Zee bags exclusive Bundesliga rights in India for five years

MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises has gone shopping for European football, and this time it has come home with the Bundesliga. The broadcaster has secured exclusive broadcast and digital rights for Germany’s top football league in India for five years, marking another swing at building a proper football ecosystem in the country.

Starting with the 2026-27 season, Bundesliga action will live exclusively on Zee 5 and air across Unite8 Sports television channels, giving Indian audiences a steady diet of live matches, highlights and shoulder programming built around one of Europe’s most competitive leagues.

The deal builds on Zee’s growing sporting ambitions, coming hot on the heels of its strategic partnership with FIFA. For Zee 5 subscribers, it means front-row access to a league packed with star power, without straying from the platform they already use.

Bavesh Janavlekar, chief business officer of Unite8 Sports at Zee, was in no mood to undersell the coup, pointing to Bundesliga’s passionate fan culture and pipeline of young talent, and namechecking stars including Harry Kane, Jamal Musiala, Michael Olise and Joshua Kimmich as reasons Indian viewers are in for a treat. He added that Zee and Bundesliga will jointly launch a football week, bringing grassroots clinics and development programmes to young Indian players, complete with world-class coaching and international best practice.

Peer Naubert, chief commercial officer of Bundesliga Media, struck a similarly long-term note, framing the partnership not as a transaction but the start of a relationship built on sustained local engagement rather than broadcast reach alone. He said the tie-up with Zee reflects years of investment in Indian football, aiming to inspire the next generation of players and deepen the country’s connection with the league.

Zee is putting its money where its mouth is too, having already pledged 15 per cent of Zee 5’s football-related subscription revenues towards scouting, training and developing young Indian talent, meaning every football subscriber effectively chips into the country’s footballing future.

The numbers back the bet. Bundesliga’s fan base in India has swelled by over 50 per cent across the last four seasons, proof that German football has found genuine traction on Indian soil.

With FIFA already in the bag and Bundesliga now added to the roster, Zee’s football portfolio is starting to look less like a side hustle and more like a full-blown league of its own.