The Bundesliga Index - The Cheapest Country To Watch The Bundesliga

The Bundesliga Price Index is a price comparison tool which tells you how much it costs to watch Bundesliga football on TV or via live streaming in various countries around the world. We initially hand-selected 20 countries with a big vested interest in the beautiful game, either historically or in the modern age. The data below is the result of hours of research. We hope you will find some value in it. Below the chart, we have written a data analysis which points out some of the more interesting insights from the index. This isn't a comprehensive list of every country in the world. We endeavour to add more and more countries all the time. If you want us to add your country, please get in touch using the details below.

It is important to note that this is not a definitive list of all the countries in the world which air coverage of the Bundesliga, and that there are undoubtedly countries in the world where one could pay less or more to watch the Bundesliga than those listed here. It is a list of 20 noteworthy football-loving nations and the prices their citizens must pay to watch the Bundesliga.

This list provides the annual cost of gaining access to as many Bundesliga matches as possible in a given market. In some cases, it isn't possible to access every single Bundesliga match of the season due to the way various broadcasting rights deals are structured. However, in other cases, fans can pay to get access to every single Bundesliga match of the season and choose which ones they want to enjoy each weekend.

The prices displayed in the index also represent the absolute cheapest possible approach to getting the most games. In the case of some rights holders, a monthly subscription to a single live-streaming platform is the cheapest way. In others, a fan must pay for subscriptions to multiple different broadcasters to cover all of the different matches available.

Some broadcasters, which hold exclusive rights to the Bundesliga, require the consumer to sign a 12-month or 24-month contract to sign up, while others - especially streamers - can often be cancelled anytime, meaning a fan only needs to pay for the 10-month Bundesliga season and then cancel their membership during the summer off-season to save money.

Some of the prices listed here are astronomically lower than others. It is important to take into account the average salary of people living in those places, and the availability of internet access and TV subscriptions. This index is purely designed to lay out the differences in price for comparison purposes. It does not suggest that watching Bundesliga football is necessarily easier from country to country. That would depend on the individual circumstances of the fan.

After determining the absolute cheapest route to take, involving the fewest subscriptions possible, to gain access to the maximum number of games possible in all 20 countries, our team did the calculations to come up with a per-season figure for watching the Bundesliga in each place. Prices are listed in their original currencies and those prices are then automatically converted into GBP (British Pounds) for comparison purposes, taking into account currency exchange rates, which are updated daily.

Here's what we found:

Somewhat surprisingly, Spain seems to be the most expensive country on earth to watch the German Bundesliga. Spanish-based football fans are often forced to pay over the odds for their football because Movistar own the rights to most major leagues and customers must purchase bundles with internet and mobile to get access to sports packs with leagues like the German Bundesliga. For this reason, the price is very high. With the Bundesliga being under the Movistar umbrella, fans must pay an extortionate amount to watch, mostly because of the other stuff they are compelled to pay for which they probably don't even want (on-demand content, internet, etc).

Despite being the home of the Bundesliga, Germany is only the second most expensive place to watch German top-flight action. Like with British fans and the Premier League, Bundesliga lovers based in Germany must subscribe to a conventional pay-TV broadcaster and a live streaming service to get access to every Bundesliga match available. Leagues are always most popular in the nations where they are based, for obvious reasons, and it's therefore not too shocking to see Germany near the top of the list, but many will have expected to see them at the very top. Due to the situation with Movistar in Spain, Germans are actually paying almost half what Spaniards are to watch their own domestic league. They are also paying significantly l less than their British counterparts do to watch their top flight - the Premier League.

Other countries with three-figure annual costs of watching the Bundesliga include fellow developed countries like the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Italy.

Slightly unexpected however was Mexico's position on the list. Despite its inhabitants enjoying a far lower salary than the people living in those larger aforementioned economies, Mexico ranks high on our list. This cost is even more shocking, given that Mexico ranks so low on our Premier League Price Index. Bundesliga fans in Mexico need to pay more than five times the amount to watch their favourite league on Sky Mexico than Premier League fans do to follow the EPL on Paramount+ and PlutoTV. The Premier League is also much more popular in Central America than the Bundesliga, which further confounded our analysts. Standalone streamers are always the cheaper option if they own the rights, but if big companies like Sky or Movistar are at the wheel, fans will need to lock themselves into expensive long-term contracts, often with compulsory broadband elements. Mexican fans of the Bundesliga will wish those rights had been snapped up by a service like ESPN+ or Paramount+ and not Sky Mexico.

Bundesliga fans stateside get a great deal with ESPN+ which, as a monthly subscription live-streaming model, provides excellent coverage at a very good rate for American viewers.

Predictably the bottom of the list is made up of developing countries like Nigeria, India and Brazil, but there are some surprises here too.

For instance, fans in Turkey get an amazing deal to watch Bundesliga matches on beIN SPORTS' live streaming platform TOD. Given the number of Turkish nationals or Germans with Turkish heritage living in Germany and playing in the Bundesliga, it's a surprise to see such a competitive price out of beIN SPORTS in that country.

Perhaps the most fascinating finding on this particular index comes from Brazil. Thanks to the website OneFootball, German Bundesliga matches will be shown completely free in Brazil. This is because the Bundesliga wants to foster growth in popularity in the region and believes the best route to achieving this will be giving away matches for free in the beginning, before turning to a paid model later on. So, for now, Brazilians can watch the likes of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund for absolutely nothing.

The Bundesliga Price Index is full of fascinating nuances and stories which might surprise you. If you found this interesting, check out our EPL Price Index and La Liga Price Index.