In Germany, the weekly ritual begins when the clock strikes 7pm on Sunday.
Whether it's at a barbecue, gathering with friends, or from the comfort of their homes, hundreds of thousands of people are accustomed to enjoying NFL games just like their American peers.
On the channel that airs the German version 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 the early slate You can watch one of the games live and then watch another match in a later slot. Two games and, well, nothing. Free-to-air German-language broadcasts make viewing easier and help attract a new generation of NFL enthusiasts in Europe.
Nearly 70,000 people attended a sold-out Allianz Arena in Munich on Sunday for the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers to face off in the final game of this year's International Series, giving fans in Germany a chance to watch live NFL action on home soil. This is a valuable opportunity to experience it.
This will be the fourth time Germany has hosted a regular season game, the first being at the same venue in 2022 and two games at Frankfurt's Deutsche Bank Park in 2023, but this year RTL This was the year that they began broadcasting NFL games in the country. Obtains exclusive free broadcast rights until 2028.
Broadcasting stations' audiences are increasing. The channel brought in an average of 710,000 viewers during regular-season games at 7 p.m. in 2023, up from 660,000 the year before when it aired on ProSieben, which was also free-to-air. The average number of viewers for the second half of the match was 490,000, an increase of 50,000 from the previous season, RTL said. Athletic.
The broadcaster said an average of 1.71 million fans watched the Super Bowl in February on RTL, with a peak of 2.27 million. In the UK, by contrast, broadcasters Sky Sports and ITV (the latter a free-to-air channel) peaked at 761,000 and 996,000 viewers respectively.
“The atmosphere we're trying to bring[to the broadcast]is first and foremost the fun and excitement of the game of American football, and getting people excited and falling in love with it,” said Patrick, RTL's NFL expert commentator.・Esme said. athletic, “And the second step is trying to get deep insight for fans who have been involved with the NFL for a long time.”
European Football Federation Commissioner Patrick Esme takes a selfie (Jürgen Kessler/Photo in association with Getty Images)
Esme started playing American football with the Hamburg Silver Eagles and later moved to the Hamburg Blue Devils. The German balances being a pundit with his role as commissioner of the European Football League, a professional American football league founded in 2020 with 18 teams divided into three conferences. But this coming weekend is one of the most exciting weeks on his calendar.
“This is a little Super Bowl that we hold every year. It has its own style and it's different from other atmospheres. It's not soccer, it's not the American NFL. It's different and it's special. ” said Esme.
“Free coverage was the catalyst that took the game and the NFL to another level,” he added. Expanded coverage paid options are now available through DAZN, NFL League Pass, and RTL+.
Tom Brady thanks the crowd in 2022 after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Seattle Seahawks at Allianz Arena in Munich (Sebastian Widman/Getty Images)
Daniel Jensen hosts an NFL-specific podcast called the Footballerei Show from Hamburg. he said. The Athletic The now-defunct NFL Europe existed in various forms on and off for 15 seasons before finally ending in 2007, providing a foundation for growing interest in the sport. Germany provided the majority and most successful teams in that league.
“The NFL Europa League has increased base interest and it has developed,” Jensen said, adding that the lack of Bundesliga games, Germany's top division, on Sunday nights has also contributed to the NFL's popularity. He added that he is doing so.
Soccer is a national sport. Historically, Germany has always been successful internationally, winning the Men's World Cup four times and the Women's World Cup twice. And Bayern Munich boasts one of the most successful men's teams in Europe.
However, Bayern's dominance has made the Bundesliga predictable in recent history. The home team at Allianz Arena, where Sunday's NFL games will be played, won 11 consecutive league titles from 2013 to 2023 until Bayer Leverkusen broke the spell last season.
During the same period, there were eight different Super Bowl winners. The NFL's ability to level the playing field through the salary cap and draft has given German sports fans a sense that the most successful teams are often the richest, and as a result, less so in soccer, a sport that attracts the best players. It offers variety and unpredictability that is hard to come by. . The NFL also provides fans with a level of physicality and combat power not found in the nation's other popular sports.
According to Sports Illustrated, last year's regular-season game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins in Frankfurt sold out in 15 minutes, with 1.42 million people lining up for online tickets within two minutes. That's what it means. The average regular season audience for this game was 1.35 million, and the highest RTL audience was 1.51 million.
According to the NFL, there are approximately 19 million fans in Germany, of whom 3.6 million (18.9%) follow the NFL avidly.
“I'd say about 20 to 25 percent[of the viewers]have a good understanding of the game and the rules, but the majority are actually interested in American football. They love the atmosphere that the broadcast brings to their living rooms. That's why,” Esme explained. .
“They are there for the social part and through it they fall in love. It is our job to secure more football professionals here in Germany.”
On Instagram, the Chiefs and New England Patriots are the most popular teams in Germany, as shown in the table below.
NFL German account by followers
“Depending on the era, different teams are popular,” Jensen said. “German fans were all obsessed with the Dallas Cowboys, Seattle Seahawks, and Pittsburgh Steelers in the '90s, the Patriots and Green Bay Packers in the 2000s and 2010s, and now the Chiefs. Just like in America. It's important to find a team that you like because you don't really have any real roots in the team.
Ten NFL teams have international marketing rights in Germany as part of the NFL's Global Markets Program, allowing franchises to build brand awareness and fandom beyond the United States. Mexico is the only country with the same amount.
It might help that there are a lot of German representatives in the NFL as well. Jacob Johnson is a fullback for the Giants, Marcel Dabo is on the Indianapolis Colts' practice squad, and Aaron Jones, a running back for the Minnesota Vikings, spent his childhood in Germany because his parents were in the U.S. military. After spending time there, he wears a German flag on his helmet. In fact, the sport's origins in Germany date back to when American soldiers were stationed in Germany after World War II.
Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, ranked the 23rd best player in the NFL by other players on the 2024 NFL Top 100 Players, has a German mother. Therefore, he has dual nationality and is able to speak. German.
“St. Brown is not a German sports star like, say, a big soccer star, he's more like an NFL superstar at the moment, but the next step will be to become more famous in Germany, and I wonder if that will happen. It will be very interesting to see if it's possible,” Jensen said.
Off the field, the NFL's head of international operations, Gerrit Meyer, is also a dual citizen of Germany and the United States. But at least for now, some of the country's biggest stars are former players who have become part of RTL's expert lineup.
Esme said, “The majority of viewers watched star players like Bjorn Werner (former first-round pick and Colts global ambassador), Marcus Kuhn (played for the Giants), and Sebastian Vollmer (two players). I watch it more while it’s on the air.” – won a Super Bowl with the Patriots).
“When it comes to the NFL, they are true German rock stars. They are even bigger stars than active German NFL players because they appear on our TV every week.”
What's encouraging for the sport, and for RTL, is that younger viewers are showing interest in the NFL. RTL recorded an average of 23% of the market for males ages 14-29 during the 2023 regular season.
Duke Dennis returns an interception for a touchdown during a celebrity flag football game in Las Vegas on February 9, 2024. (Ian Maule/Getty Images)
However, as Jensen points out, there is still work to be done to increase participation.
According to sports marketing agency SPORTFIVE, the German Olympic Sports Federation (DOSB) has 500 registered soccer teams and more than 70,000 members. As of 2023, the German Basketball Association (DBB) has 242,344 members.
“Participating (in Germany) is something the NFL needs to develop and work on,” Jensen said. “While the issue of concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) may be unpleasant, that's what makes flag football so good for the future.”
Flag football, in which a ball carrier is considered tackled if one or both of the two flags affixed to the ball carrier's waist is torn off by a defensive player, will be introduced at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Ru.
The NFL says the non-contact sport is the fastest growing sport in the world, with 20 million players in 100 countries.
“Basketball is more developed in that part. It's much more of a domestic sport and people play in our league. But right now the NFL is more popular than the NBA,” he said. said.
There are 14 German players in the NFL Academy, based at Loughborough University in England. Since 2019, the program offers full-time high school education alongside American football training. More than 40 students have come to the United States on scholarships, and 19 are enrolled in NCAA Division I this season.
“I think the next step is to bring something like that to Germany,” Jensen added.
More and more Germans are booking Sunday nights to enjoy entertainment and variety, or to watch their homegrown athletes on sport's biggest stage.
(Top photo: Getty Images, design: Meech Robinson)
