10 ViacomCBS and Football Australia announce largest Socceroos and Matildas broadcast deal ever. A new era for Australian football begins.
Football Australia and 10 ViacomCBS enter into landmark media rights agreement until the end of 2024.
Network 10 and Paramount+ to be the new home of National Teams football and the FFA Cup bringing more football to more fans providing unprecedented reach.
New deal includes all Westfield Matildas and Socceroos matches outside of FIFA World Cup Finals plus the next four (4) seasons of the FFA Cup from Round of 32 matches onwards.
A minimum of 16 Senior National Team matches over the term and the annual FFA Cup Final to be broadcast on Network 10.
The first ever direct commercial free-to-air broadcast deal for Football Australia’s National Teams.
Football Australia is pleased to announce that it has reached a landmark media rights agreement with 10 ViacomCBS for the broadcast of matches of the Australian National Teams and the FFA Cup.
The agreement, which encompasses the media rights for all national teams (Socceroos, Westfield Matildas, Young Socceroos, Westfield Young Matildas, Joeys, and Westfield Junior Matildas) owned or controlled by Football Australia, as well as AFC Asian Qualifiers – Road to Qatar, AFC Asian Cups, and other AFC tournaments until 31 December 2024, also celebrates the largest Socceroos and Westfield Matildas broadcast deal ever. Football Australia acquired the rights to the AFC competitions from the AFC to enable this compelling package of rights to be created.
In a ground-breaking move, the agreement will also include coverage of the FFA Cup (from the Round of 32) on Paramount+ with the FFA Cup Final, to be broadcast on Network 10 each year.
The deal, signed and completed today and commencing on 1 August, will result in a massive boost for Football Australia and cement 10 ViacomCBS as the new home of football.
For the fans, this means that extensive coverage of Australia’s National Teams and the FFA Cup (in addition to the A- League and Westfield W-League) will be available on 10, 10 Bold and 10 Play, as well as Paramount+, which will be available in Australia from 11 August, for $8.99 per month.
It was reported by insiders with knowledge of the deal before it was public (all of which all ended up being true when announced) that 10 were also “not able to bid for AFL or NRL during period”.
I don’t think it’s the kind of contact clause that would be announced publicly, but I think it might have some merit in actually being true.
Despite last week saying the Nine has nearly finished a deal for the NRL, this week the Telegraph is saying rumor is that 10 are still in with a big shot. Admittedly this is Phil Rothfield and he nearly almost always wrong so make of it what you will.
According to The Sunday Telegraph’s Phil Rothfield, the NRL is still keen to secure a 5-year FTA rights deal, even if there is no decision made on the 17th team. He writes that ARLC chairman Peter V’landys and NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo have a meeting scheduled with Nine Entertainment CEO Mike Sneesby this week via Zoom.
Taking Rothfield with a grain of salt as he often predicts things that are untrue he also said the NRL is also in talks seven and ten and both are also keen to secure the rights. Still a lot to play out it would seem.
I would love to see Nine ousted with 7 or 10 as FTA broadcaster. Too much a love fest between NRL and 9 I would have thought. Maybe 10 can show us in due course how they treat Football and what would NRL be like, if they had the rights.
Maybe, but definitely before the 2022 season starts, depending on who wins them. If it’s Nine then they may make it a part of their 2022 opening game coverage.
It’s a big bummer for Nine in particular because it has been able to stream its allocation of matches in the current deal. Sounds like the NRL is going back to the Foxtel/Kayo subscription model like the AFL, cricket and Super Netball.
Just to clarify, that’s seemingly referring to how Nine and 10 wouldn’t be able to secure streaming rights for their SVOD services. Whoever gets the FTA rights presumably would get streaming rights for their catch-up service (like 9 currently has for their games).
Going back to the article cmo posted, found this to be interesting:
According to industry sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks were confidential, Mr V’landys did not accept or reject the proposal, but raised concerns about a lack of promotion for rugby league by [Nine].
If true, the NRL might be tempted to award the FTA rights to Seven or 10 if either commit to promoting the league significantly more than the league believes Nine currently does
The pair have also indicated they are considering splitting the free-to-air rights for the NRL and other tournaments - like State of Origin - between multiple networks, an option Nine strongly opposes.
This is similar to the broadcast model up to the early 90s, right? When did all NRL move to Channel 9?
