Nine set to announce English Premier League rights this week
Nine is expected to announce this week it has secured the exclusive Australian broadcast rights for the English Premier League for its Stan streaming service.
The Australian reports that Nine has reached a deal with current rights holder Optus Sport to take over the deal, worth $100 million a year, until 2028. The three-year deal will see the 2025-26 competition, which starts in August, shown exclusively on Nine’s subscription streaming service, Stan Sport.
This sale was first reported in May, and marks a further retreat from the sports streaming world for Optus.
The EPL rights are expected to change hands this week.
Optus Sport built its subscription offering off the back of the EPL rights, which it stole away from Foxtel in 2016 for a reported $63 million a year. The telco quickly moved to secure the local rights to a number of prized international football leagues, including European and Japanese competitions.
Optus Sport’s most savvy play was paying an estimated $10.4 million for the broadcast rights to the Women’s World Cup from FIFA – attributed to Clive Dickens. It then halved this investment, by on-selling the free-to-air rights to Seven for an estimated $5 million, then enjoyed the biggest subscriber bump and viewing figures in the history of the platform as the Matildas team advanced through the World Cup – and the entire nation dutifully caught Tillies fever.
Since those 2023 heights, Optus has slowly returned its focus to its telecommunications assets.
Last year, Optus chose not to extend rights deals for the UEFA Champions League and Spanish football league La Liga. It also reportedly approached potential buyers for its entire Optus Sport streaming service. It currently holds the rights to the FA Cup, the Japanese J League, Korea’s K League, and the US National Women’s Soccer League.
Nine, on the other hand, is looking to shore up its sporting war chest as it mounts a streaming challenge against market leader Kayo Sport, which was recently purchased by global player Dazn.
Disney+ has also moved into live sports streaming, adding the two ESPN channels to its platform in Australia, while Paramount+ and Ten are rumoured to be close to striking a deal to win the broadcast rights to Super Cars.
Stan Sport currently holds the rights to Wimbledon, the UEFA Champions League, and Super Rugby.
Nine CEO Matt Stanton also confirmed at the Macquarie Australia Conference last month the network was chasing the Formula One rights, which are currently held by Foxtel for approximately $45 million a year, and due to go to market shortly.
When asked if Nine was interested in the rights, Stanton replied “yes, definitely”, joking he is “the only person cheering” when Aussie driver Oscar Piastri loses – as his continued success helps drive up the price of the rights package.
In addition, Nine is currently battling to keep the free-to-air broadcast rights for the NRL, as the league’s boss Peter V’landy’s puts on the pressure to sign before the end of the month.
The ARLC chair has been drumming up interest for “a record deal” over the past few months, telling News Corp papers he is looking for a deal bigger than the current $4.5 billion, seven-year contract the AFL secured at the end of 2022. With the current State of Origin series pulling the biggest free-to-air numbers it’s seen in a decade, Nine will be very keen to hold onto those rights.
When asked about the pending EPL sale, an Optus spokesperson pointed Mumbrella to the same statement it gave in May.
“All companies regularly review their businesses to ensure they are maximising value and realising their full potential – Optus is no different.”
Nine declined to comment.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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As a Liverpool fan, watching the EPL on Optus was $25 a month. I’m betting that to watch EPL games the punters will now have to purchase a Stan subscription in which the sport channel is an add on at extra cost. Smart move by Nine, I’ll be dumping my current streaming subscriptions for a Stan one whether I want to or not.
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