Australian commercial broadcaster Ten has acquired rights to the A-League, the top tier of domestic football, as well as matches played by the men’s national team.
The deal comes into effect from the 2017-18 season and grants Ten free-to-air rights to the A-League’s Saturday night games and all finals. Australian newspaper the Daily Telegraph said the deal would cover the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons.
The broadcaster will also cover all matches played by the men’s national team following the completion of the qualification campaign for next year’s Fifa World Cup in Russia.
Ten has agreed the deal with Football Federation Australia and pay-television broadcaster Fox Sports. Fox Sports signed a six-year rights agreement, covering the 2017-18 to 2022-23 seasons, with FFA last December.
Fox Sports will broadcast all A-League games, men’s and women’s national team matches, the W-League women’s league and the FFA Cup knockout club competition as part of its wide-ranging agreement.
Fox Sports’ coverage of the A-League’s Saturday night games will now be simulcast on Ten’s One channel.
The Daily Telegraph reported that Fox Sports would pay FFA A$2m (€1.3m/$1.5m) a year to assume free-to-air rights to the properties, which it will then sell on to Ten.
FFA president David Gallop said: “This is a win for football fans and an opportunity for us to showcase our game on a commercial network with a recent history of successfully covering major sport.
“We will take the biggest matches of the Hyundai A-League – such as the Saturday night derbies – into every household in Australia live for the first time. It is part of the overall broadcast deal with Fox Sports and means that we will be working with them to drive interest and subscriptions to their ‘all games live’ coverage of the Hyundai A-League.”