ViacomCBS And Australian Professional Leagues Announce Landmark Rights Deal.
Network 10 and Paramount+ to be the new home of A-League and Westfield W-League bringing more football to more fans.
A-League live and free every Saturday night on 10 and 10 Play on demand.
Westfield W-League live and free every Sunday afternoon on 10 Bold and 10 Play on demand.
A-League and Westfield W-League matches on brand new Paramount+.
Summary
Every Saturday night during the season is Football Night on 10, with the A-Leagueâs match of the round broadcast live at 7:30pm.
10 Bold will be the new home of the Westfield W-League, with a match broadcast live every Sunday of the league. All free-to-air matches will also be simulcast on 10 Play.
And, in a football first, A-League and Westfield W-League games will be available on Paramount+ which launches on Wednesday, 11 August for $8.99, with football fans and Club members given a special deal to access all games.
The investment by ViacomCBS Australia and New Zealand, further cements APLâs plan to unite, entertain and grow the football audience in Australia. It marks the first significant commercial announcement for APL since its member clubs began taking control of the A-League, W-League, Y-League and e-League on 31 December last year.
The next season of the A-League and Westfield W-League will be broadcast on Network 10 and Paramount+. Further details about the broadcast and commentary team will be announced soon.
Would she go back? Also, sounds like 10/Paramount+ will only really be showing the coverage, so the talent would potentially be League staff, not 10/Paramount+.
Elsewhere it was reported as 3 years, but I guess 5 years makes sense and would give the sport some stability for a long period - especially since ViacomCBS have taken a small stake.
1 match a round is pretty weak for the FTA portion. I get they want value for Paramount+ subscribers, but they need to invest in growing the prominence of the A-League/W-League product first, people shouldnât go weeks without seeing their team play on TV.
Even if that was having a delayed game in addition to the live primetime one, that would help.
The positive is at least itâs a âmatch of the roundâ not the Sunday scraps the ABC have been airing - but this isnât much of an improvement for viewers and for the prospects for Football bouncing back from the slump itâs in.
News Corp in their ongoing bitterness in reporting news keep comparing everything to when it was on fox and how itâs just not quite the same after being on fox. Always with the twisted view from this horrendous media company.
Cynic in me says they wanted it as always but was outmanoeuvred financially by ViacomCBS.
They really donât deserve any sport with that attitude.
What would be ideal is:
Friday night game (10Bold)
Saturday night game (10 main channel)
W League Sunday afternoon game (10 Bold)
All the finals live and free on 10âs main channel.
Maybe even a Sunday afternoon game on 10âs main channel but that might stretch their coverage a bit thin.
That should give them some more depth in the schedule and also slowly build the appeal of the sport with two A-League games guaranteed on FTA.
This purchase is for P+, not for 10. Itâs too niche for a network, the airings on FTA are to appease the code. They need content to bolster P+ in Australia, this is the first of many. Streaming is the future, thatâs where the money will be.
Disagree. Fox havenât been interested in the A/W-League for a while now - thatâs been evident by how much their coverage has been slashed over the last few years. They were never going to make more than âtokenâ bid this time.
