The scheduling of the Bundesliga is tough
by spade (2019-10-01 13:05:18)

In reply to: Scheduling always was an issue...  posted by iudomer


Whereas the EPL stretches their games out all over Sat and Sunday, I'd say of the 9 weekly games, 5 are usually all at 0930 eastern which makes it difficult to televise numerous of them, especially if the potential high rating games are at the same 0930 time.

However there is actually more to the scheduling than that and the German fans are not happy with it. I was at a Werder Bremen vs Hertha weekday game last September in 2018 and the fans were pissed because the TV schedulers were forcing games at odd hours of the day, one starting at 6pm making it difficult to make it to the kickoff after work, but so they could televise another set of weekday games again at 8pm. So the entire stadium and Suporters Section was silent and no flag waving for the first 10 minutes of the game and unfurled a banner stating (I'm paraphrasing) "Bunesliga is for the fans, not for the television stations". I'm sure the visual on the televised match was dull and awful, so perhaps they got the message.

It would be like NBC optioning to televise all the ND games at 12 noon because they wanted to show something else later in the day just because they could make more money that way. Football fans would rightly be pissed.