AFLE SECURES SPORT1 TV DEAL
The American Football League Europe has secured its first major free-to-air television deal ahead of kickoff, announcing a partnership with SPORT1 that will place one live game per week on television across Germany, Austria and Switzerland throughout the league’s inaugural 2026 season.
The agreement gives the fledgling league valuable mainstream exposure in what remains Europe’s strongest American football television market, with SPORT1 committing to weekly live broadcasts produced using a 10-camera setup that the AFLE says will ‘set a new benchmark for broadcast quality in European football’.
“Partnering with SPORT1 is a defining moment for the AFLE,” said league CEO Moritz Heisler. “Our games will be on free-to-air television, accessible to every football fan across the DACH region, from the very first kickoff of our inaugural season all the way to the AFLE Gold Bowl on September 6th.
“We have created this league for the fans, and now we are bringing it into every living room. Free TV. Ten cameras. The highest production standard European football has ever seen. We did not build the AFLE to be a niche product. We built it to be the future of football in Europe.”
SPORT1, which has previously carried NFL and European football coverage in the German-speaking market, will open its AFLE coverage on May 23rd when the Vienna Vikings host Berlin Thunder in Week 1 of the new league season.
“The AFLE is a highly attractive addition to our live sports portfolio and brings a new dimension of international football to SPORT1,” said the broadcaster’s chief content and distribution officer Andreas Gerhardt. “The league combines dynamism, international scope and a long-term strategic approach — all of which align very well with our own direction.”
The announcement comes amid an increasingly competitive European football media landscape, with the rival EFA recently securing a separate North American streaming agreement with FuboTV covering the United States and Canada to add to promised free coverage on YouTube.
Within individual team markets, however, the AFLE television picture remains fragmented. In France, the league has not yet announced a domestic linear television partner for the Paris Lights, though AFLE executives have repeatedly indicated they are pursuing broader streaming accessibility and international distribution deals before the season begins.
The same currently applies in the United Kingdom, where the London Warriors are expected to rely initially on the league’s central streaming infrastructure rather than a dedicated British broadcast agreement. Italy’s Firenze Red Lions and Poland’s Wroclaw Panthers also await confirmation of any local terrestrial or cable arrangements.
That leaves SPORT1 as the AFLE’s first major traditional broadcast foothold, but arguably its most important one. Germany and Austria have consistently delivered the strongest television audiences for American football outside North America, with NFL broadcasts regularly drawing substantial audiences in the region over the past decade.