A weekly ritual begins when the clock strikes 7pm on a Sunday in Germany.
Whether over a barbecue, a meet-up with friends, or from the comfort of their homes, hundreds of thousands settle in for their dose of NFL action, much like their American counterparts.
On the channel that broadcasts the German versions of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! (Ich bin ein Star — Holt mich hier raus!) and Germany’s Got Talent (Das Supertalent), fans can watch one of the early slate games live followed by another in the later slot. Two games for, well, nothing. The free-to-air German-language broadcast makes viewing easy and is helping to attract a new generation of NFL enthusiasts in Europe.
Close to 70,000 will visit the sold-out Allianz Arena in Munich on Sunday as the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers face off in the final game of this year’s international series, giving German fans the rare chance to experience the NFL live on home soil.
It will be the fourth time Germany has hosted a regular-season game, the first being at the same venue in 2022 while Frankfurt’s Deutsche Bank Park played host to two games in 2023, which was the year RTL started broadcasting NFL games in the country after acquiring exclusive free-to-air rights until 2028.
The broadcaster’s audience is growing. On average, the channel brought in 710,000 viewers during the 7pm regular-season games in 2023, up from 660,000 the year before when it was shown on ProSieben, also free-to-air. The later game averaged 490,000 viewers, an increase of 50,000 viewers from the previous season, RTL told The Athletic.
February’s Super Bowl saw an average of 1.71million fans watch on RTL, with peaks of up to 2.27m, the broadcaster said. In the United Kingdom, by comparison, viewership peaked at 761,000 and 996,000 on broadcasters Sky Sports and ITV respectively, the latter a free-to-air channel.
“The atmosphere we are trying to bring (to the broadcast) is first and foremost fun and excitement about the game of American football, get people excited and get them to fall in love,” Patrick Esume, an expert NFL commentator on RTL, told The Athletic, “and the second step is to try to get some deep insights for those fans who have been around the NFL for some time.”
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