The culture of German football is as unique as it comes, both from a European perspective and around the globe.
While Bayern Munich is by far the biggest and most popular German club, the country features a litany of teams that have deep fan followings, incredible in-stadium atmospheres, and a smattering of unique ownership rules which see clubs remain more connected to their local communities than anywhere else.
The league will hope to continue building on last season's thrilling campaign which saw Bayer Leverkusen win an historic first league title without losing a single match. The club, previously known in jest as "Neverkusen" for their propensity to continually finish second, put that derisive nickname to bed as Xabi Alonso led the club to domestic glory.
Bundesliga fans in the United States have unique access to every single match of German top flight football in 2024/25, able to access games from start to finish as teams from around the Euro 2024 host nation press on hoping to be the next club to shock the football world.
How to watch Bundesliga in USA for 2024/25: TV channel, live stream
Disney owns exclusive rights to all Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal matches in the United States.
The only way to watch every match of the 2024/25 season will be via streaming service ESPN+, who offer access to all matches.
Some Bundesliga matches are also made available on television. Select matches may be made available across Disney-owned channels such as ABC, ESPN, or ESPN2, all of which are accessible on Fubo.
How to watch Bundesliga for free in 2024/25 season
The only way to watch Bundesliga matches for free across the 2024/25 season is by signing up for the free trial of Fubo to access matches which are selected for television broadcast.
As of the start of the 2024/25 season, ESPN+ does not offer a free trial for the general public.
However, some wireless and internet providers boast special offers to secure ESPN+ at no cost. Spectrum partners with ESPN+ to offer Select Plus customers the streaming service for free.
How much does it cost to watch La Liga on ESPN+?
| Option | Monthly | Yearly |
| ESPN+ | $10.99/month | $109.99 |
| Disney Bundle | $14.99/month | — |
| Disney Bundle Premium | $24.99/month | — |
A subscription to ESPN+ is the only way to watch every match of the 2024/25 Bundesliga season. While ESPN designates some matches for television, they are few and far between since La Liga often gets television preference on Spanish-language channels, and ESPN has many other sports to cover on its English-language platforms.
As of the start of the season, a subscription to just ESPN+ costs $10.99 per month. There is also a yearly option for $109.99, which comes out to around $9.17 per month, a savings of slightly less than $2 per month or around 17 percent.
You can, however, package ESPN+ into a bundle for two other Disney streaming services, Hulu and Disney+. The base version costs $14.99 per month, while the premium version with no ads costs $24.99 per month, allowing a user access to all three services. There is no annual option for the Disney bundle.
Student discount for Bundesliga on ESPN+
Currently, Disney is not offering a student discount for a subscription to either just ESPN+ or the Disney bundle.
There is a student discount for just Hulu on its own, but that has not been extended to other Disney properties as of the time of writing.
How to watch Bundesliga on other cable or streaming services
ESPN+ remains the only way to watch every match of the 2024/25 Bundesliga season, but games designated for television broadcast on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, or ESPN Deportes can be accessed on a number of platforms.
All cable and streaming services which offer ESPN channels also unlock access to any streaming broadcasts of that same channel on WatchESPN.
Fubo
| Plan | Monthly | Channels |
| Fubo Pro | $79.99/month | ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 |
| Fubo Elite | $89.99/month | ESPNU, ESPN News |
Fubo offers a free two-week trial that allows a viewer to access all of the streaming service's channels across 14 days at no cost.
The base Fubo Pro plan includes 183 channels for $79.99 per month, including many of ESPN's main English-language channels.
Upgrading to Fubo Elite adds many of ESPN's peripheral English-language channels like ESPNU and ESPN News. While these channels are not often used for European soccer coverage, occasionally matches can be bumped to these channels on a temporary basis to work around unforeseen events such as overtime of prior live coverage or other occurrences.
Sling TV
| Plan | Monthly | Channels |
| Blue | $40/month* | ABC |
| Orange | $40/month* | ESPN, ESPN2 |
| Orange & Blue | $55/month* | ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 |
* Price shown is the regular price for each package. All Sling packages are half off for the first month, with the reduced price not shown.
Sling splits its channels into two base packages plus a Sling Latino add-on, meaning fans are unable to get all the necessary channels in one offering. Sling Latino can only be bundled with Orange or Blue, not both, and thus it's impossible to get everything together.
However, the splitting offered by Sling does allow fans cheaper options if only some of the channels are desired.
YouTube TV
| Plan | Monthly | Channels |
| Base Plan | $72.99/month | ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN News |
YouTube TV's base plan includes all ESPN channels except ESPN Deportes, which requires an additional Spanish Plus add-on.
One advantage of YouTube TV is that its base plan includes other channels with heavy soccer offerings, including USA Network (Premier League), CBS Sports (Serie A, Champions League), beIN Sports (Ligue 1), and Fox Sports (international soccer).
DirecTV
| Plan | Monthly | Channels |
| Entertainment | $59.99/month | ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 |
If Bundesliga fans are looking to secure more traditional cable, DirecTV is a less flexible option using a satellite. Customers are locked into a year-long contract, but it does add the ease of one home for all channels.
All traditional ESPN channels can be found on the base Entertainment plan of DirecTV, save ESPN Deportes which can be found on the Spanish-language add-on.
Bundesliga facts & figures
Who are the biggest Bundesliga clubs?
Bayern Munich has utterly dominated the modern era of German football, but the league used to be one of the most hotly contested European top flight divisions on the continent. Of Bayern's 33 league championships, by far the most of any German club, 17 of those have come since the 2000/01 season, and all but one has been since 1970.
Prior to the turn of the millennium, Bayern was just another of a host of Germany clubs to be challenging for league titles. 16 German clubs have won multiple league titles in their club's history, more than any other Big 5 European league.
| Club | Titles | Last | Runners-up |
| Bayern Munich | 33 | 2022/23 | 10 |
| FC Nurnberg | 9 | 1967/68 | 3 |
| Borussia Dortmund | 8 | 2011/12 | 11 |
| Schalke 04 | 7 | 1958 | 10 |
| Hamburg | 6 | 1982/83 | 8 |
| VfB Stuttgart | 5 | 2006/07 | 5 |
| Gladbach | 5 | 1976/77 | 2 |
| Werder Bremen | 4 | 2003/04 | 7 |
| Kaiserslautern | 4 | 1997/98 | 4 |
| FC Koln | 3 | 1977/78 | 7 |
| Lokomotiv Leipzig | 3 | 1913 | 2 |
| Greuther Furth | 3 | 1929 | 1 |
How many matches are played in a Bundesliga season?
A traditional Bundesliga season is contested as a round-robin format, but is slightly different from other leagues in a few ways. Most notably, there are only 18 teams in the German top flight, rather than the standard 20. Second, the relegation structure features a playoff for the 16th-placed team against the final lower-league qualifier.
Pitting the 18 clubs against one another in a home and away round-robin sees each team contest 34 games a season. Multiply that by all 18 clubs before dividing by two to account for duplicate listings by both clubs, and it results in 289 total matches per season.
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