We must fix the fan experience for football broadcasting
As the Premier League kicks off its new season this week, Meliora’s managing partner and former VP of television at Optus, Clive Dickens, says both media companies and sporting codes must do a far better job of putting the consumer front and centre in their streaming and rights strategies if they want to sustainably grow sport in an increasingly fragmented Australian streaming landscape.
Streaming was meant to liberate sports audiences. But for many football fans, it’s doing the opposite, locking them out, one login and/or paid subscription at a time. No sport illustrates this tension more clearly than football. Grassroots participation is booming, international interest has never been stronger, yet the viewing experience remains fractured.
One sport, too many walls
At any given moment from August, following live football in Australia might require seven logins and six subscriptions:
- Stan Sport – Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League, NWSL, Europa League
- 9Now – Select Saturday evening fixtures of the Premier League 2025/26 season
- Paramount+ – A-Leagues Men, A-Leagues Women, Socceroos, Matildas, Australia Cup, FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027
- SBS On Demand – FIFA World Cup 2026, FIFA World Cup Qualifiers
- Kayo/DAZN – FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Women’s Champions League
- BeIN Sports – EFL & Championship, Carabao Cup, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1
- Apple TV+ – Major League Soccer
This isn’t a fan first ecosystem, it’s a scavenger hunt. Each service comes with its own app and login, billing system, production style, Content and CX strategy. The result? A fragmented and increasingly expensive experience for football fans who simply want to watch the beautiful world game.
This week, the Premier League kicks off on Stan Sport and 9Now, following Nine’s recent acquisition of the Premier League from Optus Sport (full transparency: I used to oversee sports streaming at Optus). This is a positive move which will simplify part of the landscape but the bigger question remains: how do we solve football’s viewing fragmentation and help it become the global super-brand in Australia it deserves to be?
Rethinking the ecosystem: collaboration over consolidation
Is it time competing platforms unite in the name of growth? Consider the recent partnership between Disney+ and ITVx in the UK. The new deal will see each platform feature a curated selection of the other’s premium content, opening up new access points and exposing audiences to more of what they love. It’s not about merging; it’s about creating mutual value through smart collaboration that has potential to grow both D2C brands. Or the other ground breaking announcement from Netflix bringing TF1 group live streams into the SVOD as a world first in France.
Could a similar model work in Australian football?
Imagine a viewing ecosystem where fans, regardless of platform, receive smart recommendations and scheduling cues that capture the full football ecosystem. Not to blur brand lines or merge rights, but to help build connective tissue between right holders so fans can follow the sport more easily. One sport, one fan journey, delivered through multiple partners working in sync.
Supporters or subscribers first?
This leads me to my next question, is the current viewing landscape treating people as supporters, or as subscribers first?
The answer matters, because when commercial decisions prioritise platform growth over audience experience, the long-term value of the sport is at risk.
Right now, fans are being asked to pay close to 2x more than their AFL / NRL counterparts for access to their passion. This approach may deliver short-term wins for international rights owners, but it does risk undermining the sport’s cultural relevance. Football should be something people connect with instinctively and emotionally. Yes, revenue and profit matter, but so does accessibility and it can’t be at the expense of the household budget.
The Premier League rights have changed hands
Without free-to-view, are we creating more fan friction?
Even as we keep ‘paid streaming’ ahead, we can’t pull the plug on the power of free-to-view, we need to rewire its role in the fan experience.
Despite the rise of SVOD, Free to View TV and BVOD still accounts for over 60% of total viewing in Australia and remains the single most effective way to reach broad and diverse audiences to grow the game
Football’s current model, predominantly spread across multiple paid services (aside from a few select fixtures that will air on Channel 9), introduces both complexity and high cost. Without a clear, consistent free-to-view presence, the sport risks becoming harder (not easier) for new and casual fans to access and engage with, while continuing to place football in the niche product category, instead of a mass passion.
We need to design the role each platform is playing in the fan journey, with free-to-view BVOD fuelling reach and connection, and streaming delivering depth and personalisation. It can’t be the case of one or the other. The key is creating a seamless experience across both, not forcing fans to piece it together themselves.
AFL and NRL have both benefited from long-standing, unified free-to-view partnerships that have consistently reached mass Australian audiences. Football, by contrast, lacks that cohesive foundation and will continue to pay the price without it.
With marquee global tournaments on the horizon including the FIFA World Cup 2026 (North America), Women’s World Cup 2027 (Brazil), UEFA Euro 2028 (UK & Ireland), Women’s World Cup 2031 (USA & Mexico) and Women’s Euros 2029 (location tbc), this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to embed football more deeply into Australian culture if we can get the fan experience right.
The future of football must be more fan-centred
The future of football in Australia will be defined by how easy it is to follow, watch, and fall in love with the game. To unlock its full potential, we need to move beyond siloed strategies and build a more integrated, fan-first ecosystem.
That means bringing the passion built every weekend on community pitches across the country into a seamless, accessible viewing experience for all Australians. Because when football is simple to watch, it becomes impossible to ignore and that’s when it delivers the greatest value for everyone involved, just remember how we all felt during the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
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