Football Federation Australia, the sport’s national governing body, has begun exploring options ahead of its next broadcast rights deal and is reportedly targeting a 100-per-cent increase in value with more free-to-air coverage.
Pay-television broadcaster Fox Sports and public-service broadcaster SBS are currently engaged in four-year deals with FFA, running from 2013-14 to 2016-17, worth A$160m (€103m/$111.6m). The rights encompass domestic club competition the A-League, along with the Australian national team and the Asian Football Confederation’s Asian Cup tournament.
David Gallop, chief executive of FFA, has hired London-based strategic adviser Oliver & Ohlbaum to aid the rights process. The Australian newspaper said administrators are confident of achieving a big rise in value, potentially up to A$80m per year. Speaking to The Australian, Gallop said: “There’s no set timetable but with a year to go on the current deal we recognise it’s a good time to be out and about talking to the potential partners.”
The newspaper said FFA is set to cut its ties to SBS amid concerns over poor ratings for Friday night A-League games. It is understood commercial broadcasters Seven, Nine and Ten will participate in talks. Gallop said: “While recognising the investment of Fox Sports we think commercial free-to-air coverage of our bigger A-League games will help us both grow the sport.”
Fox Sports is keen to retain its rights, according to chief executive Patrick Delany. He said: “It’s a sleeping giant in an incredibly competitive sports landscape here in Australia. This is a very important one for us; it falls into the live and local bucket. We need to work out how we can continue to grow football and make sure it has the right amount of money to do that.”