Australian commercial broadcaster Nine has acquired free-to-air rights to the men’s national football team’s qualifying campaign for the 2018 Fifa World Cup.
Nine will provide a simulcast broadcast of the matches alongside pay-television broadcaster Fox Sports. The deal includes all of Australia’s remaining final stage World Cup qualifiers through to September 2017, commencing with Friday’s game in Saudi Arabia.
Australian newspaper the Herald Sun said Nine has paid a multi-million-dollar fee to Fox for the rights, with the two parties having staged direct negotiations. The final stage qualifying campaign for the 2018 World Cup had commenced last month with coverage via Fox Sports only.
Football Federation Australia chief executive David Gallop said: “We have always stated our desire to have a commercial free-to-air network to work with Fox Sports in delivering football to the Australian public and this is a positive sign that football is valued highly by the commercial FTA networks.”