On Wednesday, the Kansas City Chiefs and RTL Germany jointly announced a one-year partnership agreement that makes RTL a Broadcast Partner of the Kansas City Chiefs in the DACH (D-Germany, A-Austria, CH-Switzerland) region.
The agreement provides RTL Germany the ability to broadcast multiple Kansas City Chiefs preseason games across RTL platforms, including linear, over-the-air and social channels. The Chiefs will have two preseason games featured on the German TV channel NITRO, including the club's first preseason game at New Orleans at noon CT (7 p.m. CET) on Sunday, August 13 and the club's final preseason game vs. Cleveland at noon CT (7 p.m. CET) on Saturday, August 26. Games can also be followed live and on demand on RTL+.
In addition, RTL Germany gains non-exclusive rights to broadcast The Franchise presented by GEHA – the club's self-produced, long-form, behind-the-scenes content series – in the DACH region throughout the season. The Franchise presented by GEHA will stream on RTL+ beginning in August with the first episode from training camp. Additional episodes will be released at regular intervals throughout the regular season on RTL+.
"There is so much excitement inside the organization and within Chiefs Kingdom for our expansion into Germany, especially with the upcoming Frankfurt game in November," Chiefs President Mark Donovan said. "Our agreement with RTL Germany and its multiple distribution platforms ensures that Chiefs Kingdom will be in homes and on countless streaming devices throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland this preseason. When you add the unique, behind-the-scenes content from The Franchise throughout the regular season, all football fans in Germany will get the chance to see a Chiefs season through the eyes of our players, coaches and staff."
"Since the announcement of the partnership with the NFL, we have been eagerly awaiting the moment of the first live broadcast," said Oliver Schablitzki, Executive Vice President Multichannel for RTL Germany. "We are all the more pleased to finally be able to show the first games of the preseason on NITRO, which RTL Deutschland has been working on meticulously over the past few months. We have selected three games - including the appearance of the Super Bowl champions from Kansas City - all of which promise great excitement. We're ready!"
The preseason on-air team, based in RTL's broadcast center in Cologne, Germany, includes presenter Jana Wosnitza, commentators Jan Stecker and Florian Schmidt-Sommerfeld, and experts Björn Werner and Patrick Esume. Alex "Kucze" von Kuczkowski and Mitja Lafere will provide voices and insights from fans on the web as community hosts.
The Chiefs were originally awarded International Home Marketing Area (IHMA) rights for Germany and Mexico in December 2021 as part of the NFL's Global Markets Program. In April 2023, the NFL awarded expanded International Home Marketing Area rights for Austria and Switzerland to the Chiefs.
The Chiefs and the Hunt family have been involved in numerous international initiatives over the past three decades, investing in growing the game and its fanbase globally and helping showcase the best of the sport on the international stage. In addition to regular season international contests in London (2015) and Mexico City (2019), the club has participated in four American Bowl preseason games – Berlin, West Germany (1990), Tokyo, Japan (1994 and 1998) and Monterrey, Mexico (1996).
Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt has long been a leader on the league's international efforts. Hunt sits on the NFL's International Committee and served as the committee's Chairman from 2011-18. During his time as Chairman, Hunt was a strong advocate for expanding the league's international efforts and the NFL's footprint overseas. The league has now hosted 38 regular season games across the United Kingdom, Mexico and Germany, with every NFL team playing at least once internationally since 2011.
About RTL Deutschland
RTL Deutschland is Germany's leading entertainment company, spanning all types of media: TV and streaming, print and digital, radio and podcasts. It is home to some of the country's strongest media brands, from RTL to Stern, Brigitte to Vox, and Geo to NTV, and operates Germany's largest streaming platform, RTL+, with more than 4.3 million subscribers. RTL Deutschland owns 15 TV channels and numerous premium magazines and digital offerings, such as CAPITAL, Gala, CHEFKOCH digital and Wetter.de. RTL Radio is one of Germany's largest privately owned radio groups, with holdings in 20 stations including Antenne Niedersachsen, Antenne Bayern or Radio Hamburg. RTL Deutschland stands for positive entertainment and independent journalism, employing around 1,500 journalists to inform and entertain on all topics shaping contemporary society. Encompassing everything from news to sport, living to lifestyle, and women to family, RTL Deutschland reaches 99 percent of the German population. The company also boasts one of Germany's largest advertising sales houses: Ad Alliance. Thanks to targeted investments in tech and data, RTL Deutschland is well on the way to becoming the country's leading media company in terms of technology. RTL Deutschland has its headquarters in Cologne and offices at 17 other locations, including Hamburg and Berlin. It employs around 8,000 people and is part of RTL Group.
