Germany: Euro 2024 in UHD on MagentaTV
December 1, 2023
The UEFA Euro 2024 kicks off in Germany in June. As a network supplier, national sponsor and TV rights holder, Deutsche Telekom has announced details of its coverage of next summer’s sporting event.“This tournament is the biggest sporting event of this decade. Deutsche Telekom is a proud partner of UEFA. We are providing Germany with high-speed networks for the European Championships, ensuring worldwide TV coverage and bringing this tournament closer to our customers with various fan campaigns. And with MagentaTV, we have the only TV platform showing all 51 matches of this tournament. We want to organise a football summer party and can hardly wait for the kick-off. For us, the countdown starts today,” commented Michael Hagspihl, Senior Vice President Global Strategic Projects and Marketing Partnerships. There will be public viewing in many European Championship cities. UEFA is operating Fan Zones in the ten European Championship cities. Deutsche Telekom will provide the TV pictures with MagentaTV and will activate as a national sponsor in the Fan Zones. In addition, the company will provide special moments via its ‘Magenta Moments’ loyalty programme. As part of this programme, Deutsche Telekom is offering its customers European Championship tickets in competitions and sending more than 600 so-called flag-bearer children onto the pitch with the European Championship players. To ensure that all Deutsche Telekom mobile customers can watch the tournament on the move, Deutsche Telekom will switch the data volume in various mobile tariffs to unlimited during the tournament. “In the beer garden, at the swimming pool or on the train: MagentaTV is everywhere where there is network coverage. With us, fans can watch soccer without limits,” says Deutsche Telekom’s Head of Private Customers Wolfgang Metze.“Football brings people together. Telekom also brings people together. That is our claim, our brand promise. We provide unique experiences around this tournament and reward the loyalty of our customers,” added Hagspihl. National team of sports reporting
In Hamburg, Deutsche Telekom presented its Magenta TV team, its ‘national team of sports reporting’. Johannes B. Kerner will take on the role of host, as he did for UEFA EURO 2020TM and the 2022 World Cup. He will present live from the studio on match days and live from the stadium for selected matches. Following excellent reviews, former DFB captain Michael Ballack and former international Tabea Kemme will lead the MagentaTV team of experts. Wolff Fuss, one of Germany’s most renowned TV commentators, will also be back on the programme.
“The most successful teams in football are the ones with the best mix. We have a national team of experts, reporters and presenters with us. We rely on the best on-air team. We have received outstanding feedback at past tournaments and are focussing on personnel continuity. At the same time, we want to keep improving for our customers and have therefore also brought fresh names with additional expertise on board,” says Wolfgang Metze, responsible for the private customer business at Telekom. One addition to the team of experts has already been announced: Shkodran Mustafi, 2014 World Champion, will be joining the MagentaTV team.The most modern, most personal and best sports coverage
Metze continued: “Our TV offering stands for the most modern, most personal and best sports coverage in Germany. MagentaTV is the only platform that shows all 51 matches of the tournament. Five matches will be shown exclusively on our channel. ‘EM total’ is only available on MagentaTV. On three exclusive EM channels. With the longest and most extensive live programmes of all providers and all matches in UHD quality. Whether you’re on the move, at home or in the office: MagentaTV is available everywhere. We show all the highlights. And we are providing new impetus with fresh, innovative approaches such as our own tactics channel and our Reaction Show for the younger target group.”Deutsche Telekom is offering Magenta TV for everyone so that everyone in Germany can watch the European Championships. Even customers without a Telekom Internet connection can enjoy the best European Championship entertainment, as MagentaTV is available regardless of their network provider. During the tournament, the so-called ancillary cost privilege will no longer apply. From then on, the fees for the basic cable TV service may no longer simply be passed on to tenants via the ancillary costs. “This affects around 12.5 million households in Germany. They have a completely new freedom of choice and the chance to use our MagentaTV offer. The European Championship is a unique opportunity for us to attract new customers to Germany’s leading TV platform,” said Metze. The best network for the perfect football experience
Deutsche Telekom’s network coverage for the European Championships is at a high level. Deutsche Telekom covers more than 95 per cent of the population with 5G and more than 99 per cent with LTE. “We are making sure that everyone – the fans, the entire organisation and the many hard-working hands around the tournament – can use the best Deutsche Telekom network. The best network is in demand everywhere: in stadiums, fan zones, training grounds, team hotels, railway stations, airports, hotels and at home with the fans. The network will be under even greater strain during the European Championships, especially in terms of capacity. We will prepare for this. Because a perfect host also ensures a perfect network,” said Hagspihl. Telekom is optimising its mobile network wherever football fans will be during the home European Championships. The focus is on a total of 430 locations. There, technicians are expanding existing sites, setting up new ones and, if necessary, deploying temporary solutions. Through these measures, Telekom is strengthening more than 13,000 cells in the mobile network. Nine of the ten European Championship stadiums will receive 5G on the high-speed 3.6 gigahertz frequency. Fibre optics will also play a key role at Euro 2024, with Deutsche Telekom relying on fibre optics wherever the European Championship take place. “We transmit the images that go around the world. To do this, we are integrating UEFA’s broadcast centre, the IBC, into our network. It’s about redundant, highly resilient network infrastructure for the TV images of the tournament. From the IBC, the signals go around the world,” commented Hagspihl. Technology will continue to be used
The network technology has already been in place in most European Championship stadiums for a few days. Tests are due to begin from the New Year. Within the stadiums, Deutsche Telekom says it is providing the best connectivity and high-speed via 5G, LAN and WLAN. The company is laying 50 kilometres of optical fibre in the ten stadiums and providing 1,000 switches and 1,500 access points. This hardware will also be installed for the tournament and will continue to be used afterwards. In total, more than 600 Telekom technicians will be working during the tournament.