Yes, it did. I don’t know how long it had been going for but I remember a long time ago now I sign up for it when it was basically just a subscription service.
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They took over Setanta Sports Australia in November 2014
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Its hard seeing beIN survive with only Fetch and their streaming service - it was allegedly touch and go before they were able to renegotiate their Foxtel arrangements to be included in the Sports package (they’d been a 3rd party add-on package prior)
While their sports offering is decent - it’s a little eclectic outside of being football heavy and will struggle to attract a wide audience (especially at the streaming pricepoint)
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The other thing is it’s hard to really see Fox Sports picking up the rights to much of whats on there apart from very bottom-tier stuff.
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They might look at the motorsport (but even still, its a bit niche) - the two sports that seem to underpin beIN’s local offering (football and union) are sports that Fox have walked away from
Perhaps the likes of P+/Optus/Stan might may a play for some of it if they were to exit the market.
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You’d assume Stan would grab the Rugby stuff and then all three would go for the football stuff.
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I can see them sticking around. They are well backed and I think a lot of their rights are for multiple regions not just Australia.
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Plus the tennis content. BeIn’s football stuff up for grabs at the end of 23/24
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This will help - especially if they’re not paying significant amounts of money for rights. Whether they continue to retain the rights locally or not will be something to watch, but that assumes that there is stuff that other broadcasters will be interested in.
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Not sure about the tennis. Before Bein Foxsports would only show select events and ESPN had the rights to the major events that are just below grand slam level. I would expect if the rest of the tennis was to go anywhere i would say Stan at this point.
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That or TennisTV or whatever streaming service each tournament is associated with.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure Tennis TV has the rights to all of them but they can’t show Australian Based events. The last time Tryed out Tennis Tv they had no rights to other events such as Davis Cup, Fed Cup and other exhibition tournaments. But I’m not sure whether this is still the case.
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Think beIN’s best move now would be to follow what they’ve done in New Zealand with Sky Sport and enter into a partnership/arrangement with another provider (e.g., Optus Sport, Stan, Paramount+ or someone else) to carry their rights. That way they can still retain a presence in Australia whilst continuing to benefit from being part of a bigger service rather than try and go it alone again like they did when they took over from Setanta Sports. Eurosport tried doing that after it was dropped from Foxtel and that didn’t last long so beIN would be wise not to go down the same path.
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