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What happens off the field in Australian Sport

2012 FFA Media Deal

SBS secured the free-to-air rights for the A-League in a four year deal, commencing from the 2013-14 season.

The $160 million deal – made up of $148 million in cash and $12 million in advertising – marks the first time Australia’s premier domestic football competition will be broadcast on free-to-air TV since the A-League’s inception.

SBS will enter into a joint partnership with Foxtel that will allow the government broadcaster to show every Friday night A-League match live with all finals matches on a one-hour delay. All of Australia’s World Cup qualifying matches will also be screened on an hour delay.

Under the agreement, SBS has the rights to:

  • One LIVE Hyundai A-League match per week on a Friday night
  • All Hyundai A-League Finals Series matches on a one hour delay
  • The Hyundai A-League Grand Final on a one hour delay
  • A weekly highlights show
  • Online and mobile rights including simultaneous streaming and highlights
  • Radio rights.

Foxtel will continue broadcast every game of the A-League live and cover all of the Socceroos matches live over the next four years.

The rights deal commenced on July 1, 2013.

Digital Rights

The breakdown of the game’s online rights was not revealed in full but the FFA says they have maintained some autonomy over their own content, specifically relating to their own website.

While Fox Sports previously owned all digital rights, under the new terms the FFA can show live on digital platforms the Friday night games plus the finals and World Cup qualifiers. The FFA can replay on digital platforms all other games on a 24-hour delay.

International Rights

In April 2012, FOX Soccer in the USA announced the renewal of exclusive media rights the A-League in an agreement brokered by World Sport Group.

The rights include coverage of 31 exclusive regular season and Finals Series matches on FOX Soccer and FOX Soccer Plus, the brand-s 24/7 premium subscription network, through the 2015 season. In addition to live and delayed match coverage, the renewal includes Hyundai A-League Highlights, a weekly 30-minute show discussing results, storylines and memorable events from weekly matches.

In August 2013, Football Federation Australia announced it had extended World Sport Group-s (WSG) agreement to represent the worldwide (excluding Australia and Oceania) broadcast rights for the Hyundai A-League, for a further four years, until the end of the 2016/17 season.

The new agreement also coincided with the news that, WSG had signed agreements with BT Vision (replacing BSkyB) to show at least two matches each week in the UK and extended their agreement with Mediaset to show all Sydney FC matches in Italy for the Hyundai A-League 2013/14 season.

Additionally, in partnership with Perform, the digital rights group, WSG will also stream every match played in the Hyundai A-League worldwide (subject to geoblocking in selected territories) on www.aleague.livesport.tv. WSG will support the league broadcasts on online and social media including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
In 2014 it was announced that Indias TEN Sports had secured the rights to both the A-league and FFA Cup competitions for the next three years.

As part of the deal the network will broadcast a minimum of 86 of the 140 matches of the A-League season, as well as at least 10 games from the FFA Cup.

The deal means the A-League and FFA Cup will be broadcast into nations like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

ACL Rights

Rights to the Asian Champions league matches featuring Australia were sold to the ABC in October 2014 with the final deal believed to be worth about $700,000.

FoxSports will show each of the 32 matches from the tournament live and in high-definition, the ABC will get access to the Socceroos group matches from the tournament. In addition to broadcasting Australia’s matches, a nightly highlights show will screen on ABC at 10pm.

Should the Socceroos make it past the group stage, the ABC will be able to show its matches from the quarter-finals onwards live. Regardless of the Socceroos’ progress in the tournament, ABC will be able to screen the semi-finals and final live.

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