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Football Australia reports drop in broadcast & sponsor revenue in FY2021

Football Australia (FA) has reported a drop in broadcast revenue of $19.3 on 2020 figures, down to $37.7 million, in its 2021 annual report, “mostly attributable to the lower domestic broadcast rights income”.

Broadcast revenue represented the rights to the broadcast the A-League Men, A-League Women and FFA Cup competitions, as well as Socceroos and Commonwealth Bank Matildas friendly matches.

 

Broadcasting expenses, which were more than halved from $576,000 to $259,000, were largely down to reduced national team activity and “favourable terms” for the A-League Women’s broadcast.

Sponsorship revenue for Football Australia was also almost halved from $21.4 million to $11.1 million, “attributable to the expiry of various contracts including Hyundai, Aldi and Caltex”.

This period saw the broadcast rights deal with Foxtel come to a close, with Ten ViacomCBS becoming the new broadcast partner.

The report stated: “A landmark media rights agreement saw Ten ViacomCBS become the home of Australian football, providing unprecedented reach for fans to engage with Australian National Football Teams, and the tournament that connects professional football to community football – the FFA Cup.”

“Football Australia enjoyed a strong year commercially, with the major priority a successful broadcast rights process that saw Ten ViacomCBS join Football Australia in a game changing deal for National Teams and FFA Cup content. As part of the new partnership with Football Australia, and a subsequent deal with APL, Ten ViacomCBS is positioned as the new Home of Australian Football, undertaking significant commitments to market and promote the game to more Australians than ever before.

“Football Australia entered its broadcast rights process with clear objectives to maximise reach and value from its new media partner, and to ensure strong commitments to leverage investment to grow the game at levels in line with the new strategic agenda outlined in the XI Principles for the future of Australian football. Ten ViacomCBS has been attracted to and will be supporting this vision, and as part of its commitments will not only be broadcasting live games year round, but also commissioning a new children’s programme focused on football, as well as cross-promoting football across its broad range of news and entertainment programming, to introduce the game to a broader range of viewers than ever before.”

The report also highlighted progress made by the Nivea Men E-League 2021, which begun with a two day tournament in April, which also included Nivea as the first naming rights partner for the competition.

Macarthur FC also also introduced into the competition, meaning all 12 A-League Men’s clubs participate across Xbox and PS4, in the 11 rounds which are broadcast across Twitch, Facebook and Youtube, as well as the A-League website. The competition reported “an average of almost 75,000 live views per day and more than 45,000 unique views per day”

 

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