By Stuart Thomson

Sports channel Sport1 has acquired an exclusive rights package for the next two seasons to the new XFL US Football League starting in February.

The XFL 2023 season will begin after the NFL Super Bowl, and Sport1 will present the XFL from February 18 live and in highlights on free-TV and extensively on pay TV channel Sport1+ as well as its digital and social media channels.

Sport1 acquired exclusive platform-neutral rights to the XFL for Germany, Austria and Switzerland from ESPN for the next two years. The rights package includes a total of 43 games – on each of the ten gamedays, two games each are scheduled on Saturdays and Sundays, after the regular season followed by the XFL Playoffs on April 29 and 30 and the XFL Championship on May 13.

Sport1 will show the opening season live and in highlights on every gameday on free TV and extensively on Sport1+ as well as on Sport1.de, the Sport1 apps and its social media channels. A minimum of up to 10 games per season are scheduled to air on free-TV channel Sport1.

The XFL, which will be broadcast in the US on ABC, ESPN and FX as part of a partnership with The Walt Disney Company and ESPN , is owned by figures including Hollywood actor Dwayne Johnson, TV producer and Johnson’s ex-wife Dany Garcia, and Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital Partners.

Chairman and CEO of Sport1, Olaf Schröder said: “Enthusiasm for American Football has grown enormously in German-speaking countries in recent years – with the first NFL game in Munich as the temporary high point of the euphoria surrounding what is now one of the most-watched sports over here. With the XFL, we’re offering an even greater variety of sports on our platform, strengthening our US sports programming and underscoring our ambition to go on the offensive as a first mover, especially in such new and innovative topics.”