Foxtel signs record A-League deal with FFA and free-to-air deal also on its way
Foxtel has signed a $346m deal with Football Federation Australia for the Hyundai A-League, more than doubling the like-for-like value of the current broadcast contract over the next six years.
The deal, which came together quickly over the course of the past week, guarantees Foxtel’s hold on the domestic league a year after being blindsided by Optus for the rights to the English Premier League little more than a year ago.
Fox Sports’ hold on the FFA rights includes the A-League, Socceroos, Matildas, W-League and FFA Cup matches, but will not include Socceroos World Cup Qualifying matches, the Asian Cup and Asian Champions League.
In a crucial step for the game, the commercial TV rights have been held over, with plans for a prime time Saturday night match to be broadcast on commercial TV from a next year.
The FFA is hoping to realise as much as $70m from the commercial rights.
The new deal comes into effect from July 2017 and also gives Foxtel the digital rights to the league, clearing the way for it to be streamed on its Foxtel Go digital platform.
Peter Tonagh: Foxtel has “doubled its investment”
Foxtel CEO, Peter Tonagh, said that the new deal showed Foxtel’s support for the sport as it prepared for continued growth, including the addition of two teams expected from 2018.
“This doubling of our investment provides the long term support to further grow the game at both an elite and grassroots level,” Tonagh said.
“We strongly believe in football and know our customers share the passion and love for the game as we do.”
FFA chairman Stephen Lowy said the six-year-term of the deal gave the sport the confidence to move forward with its plans for continued growth in the region.
“Since the transformation of our game began back in 2003, the change in football has been remarkable,” Lowy said.
“Football has always been the ‘world game’ but it is now also entrenched as a mainstream Australian sport, with deep connections to Asia, the fastest-growing region in the world.
“Our game has never seen a deal of this magnitude before. This six-year agreement gives us the certainty to continue to implement our strategy to grow the Hyundai A-League and the Westfield W-League and invest more in grassroots football development and the women’s game.”
David Gallop says FFA will invest money in marquee talent
FFA CEO, David Gallop, said the impact of the deal would be felt at every level of the sport, with $3m made available each season to lure more marquee players of the likes of Tim Cahill – who has served as a centrepiece of the sports marketing this season.
“We have seen the enormous impact that our current marketing and marquee player strategies are having,” Gallop said.
“This year TV audiences, crowds and club memberships are all up and it is our intention to re-double our efforts in these areas under the new deal.”
While the FFA has announced that a prime-time free-to-air game on Saturday nights will be a feature of the new deal, fans will have to wait until the commercial network battle over the Big Bash League rights is finalised before learning who will bid for the FFA game.
A commercial network deal is seen as crucial to broadening the casual audience of the sport, with those close to the discussions telling Mumbrella that the “SBS” option is not a solution.
The FFA is keen to get the marketing clout of either Seven Nine or Ten to help convert grassroots participation levels into audiences that will in turn become attractive to sponsors.
World Game needs kick in the backside. We know that soccer is the least interesting and dumbest sport in the world of major sports. You can only use your legs (and head -that’s really dumb). Obviously the low IQ of players implies that manipulating arms and legs and keeping your head clear of hits (like even Cassius Clay could achieve) is beyond player brain system capability. You cannot go everywhere you like on the field, the goal square is too small, penalties are based on Oscar Award voting by referees, any score is generally an accident, so leading to bribery of Umpires to ensure penalties occur right in front of opponent’s goals, and lastly, there is barely ever a clear winner. And the score never get above a binary system of 0/0, 1/0 or 0/ after 80 minutes or so of prancing and theatrics. Lastly the players physiques are so poor and skinny that women on go to watch AFL players or Professor Leakey’s Missing Link new age equivalents – League Players.
I hope the $346m Foxtel is paying does not lead to any encouragement for normal people to take up this random lame game.
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What a truly uneducated and unqualified opinion, Football (soccer to you) is the sleeping giant only in Australia. Go back to your rugby club and quiver in nervousness.
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Not Rugby, I used to clean the Gordon Rugby Club toilets in a casual job – terrible mess – not toilet trained at all. Plus the game has all the elements of a Kindergarten sand pit where the teacher says to the littlies, jump on each other and pile in scrum like . Such a silly game when they clap kicking out the ball on the full. What other sport does that?
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