June 6 – Australian football, currently challenged by a slow moving reform process at federation level, has better news for stakeholders on the broadcast front with Ten Network announcing it has acquired the exclusive free-to-air rights to A-league and national team matches.
Fox Sports controlled the rights as part of a record six-year $255.5 million deal concluded earlier this year. This included the free-to-air rights which it has on-sold to Ten in a reported $1.5 million a year deal.
Ten will broadcast a Saturday evening A-League match, derbies, and all finals as well as Socceroos matches on multichannel One. Fox Sports will carry the vast bulk of live matches on its pay TV platform.
The deal with Ten includes selected games streamed live on the Ten Play app, as well as Foxtel Go.
The Ten deal rounds out the broadcast platform for Federation Football Australia (FFA) bringing a broader-based and wider promotional platform for the game as it grows in the sports-mad country. Fox brings the big money number.
With the increase in TV money came a dispute between the Australian A-League club owners and the FFA with the clubs rejecting the annual A$3.25 million per club financial offer from the FFA last month. The clubs argue they should receive more money from the new A$56 million per season broadcast deal agreed with Fox.
The FFA was already in dispute with clubs over representation on their board. Currently only 10 voters – the lowest of the 211 FIFA member nations – elect the FFA board. The clubs want more representation and FIFA has issued deadlines for the FFA to reform but they have been extended as no real common ground has been reached so far.
The dispute over the TV money saw all 10 club owners walk out of a meeting with the FFA in Sydney. The new deal is a 40% increase on the previous agreement. The increase in the offer to clubs is 24%, up from the previous A$2.6 million per season.
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