Report: Soccer deal tipped for SBS
Updated: FFA, FOX Sports and Foxtel and SBS announce joint broadcast deal for the Socceroos World Cup Qualifier.
- Published by David Knox
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SBS is set to secure rights for A-League matches for four years from 2013, plus Socceroos games for five years, in a new $40m a year deal likely to be signed this week.
The Herald Sun reports SBS staved off a late bid from TEN for the deal that will see one live game a week, probably on Saturday nights. SBS may also screen a weekly highlights package.
Socceroos’ World Cup qualifiers look set to be televised on SBS on a one-hour delay, while A-League will likely have to wait another year before games are shown.
FOX Sports, which has had exclusive rights for A-League and Socceroos World Cup qualifiers and friendlies since 2005, will continue to televise every domestic and international match live.
The $40 million-per-year deal is likely to include at least $5 million in contra, with FOX Sports paying the lion’s share.
FOX Sports executives were unavailable for comment and SBS head of sport Ken Shipp last night declined to comment.
UPDATED Press Release:
FFA, FOX Sports and Foxtel and SBS have today announced that the FIFA 2014 World Cup Asian qualification match between the Qantas Socceroos and Jordan in Amman this Wednesday morning will be broadcast live on FOX Sports and on a one hour delay by SBS.
Exclusively live coverage of the match will be broadcast on FOX Sports 3HD and FOX Sports 3 from 1.30am AEST Wednesday. The SBS coverage will commence on SBS ONE at 2.30am AEST.
“I thank our long-term partners FOX Sports and Foxtel for accommodating this arrangement,” said FFA CEO Ben Buckley.
“Australian football would not have achieved so much growth and development since 2005 without the significant investment of FOX Sports.
“I welcome SBS’s support in broadcasting Wednesday’s match. SBS has a rich history in covering domestic and international Australian football.
”FFA is currently in ongoing discussions with FOX Sports and SBS over the long-term broadcast rights in Australian football.
“The discussions have reached an advanced stage and the parties have displayed good faith, which has allowed this one-off arrangement for Wednesday’s match.”
The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, welcomed the announcement.
“For the good of the game I congratulate everyone involved in showing the Socceroo game tomorrow morning,” Senator Conroy said. “It’s great to see that all Australian football fans will have the chance to cheer on their Socceroos as they work to qualify for the World Cup.”
17 Responses
@ A…sorry about your signal.If you want another go at it,it’s on the sbs website.If you see me posted on a forum,feel free to give me an @,and let me know how you liked it.To me it was confounding ,thought provoking,and just fun to watch.
@ nicks
I don’t know how many were affected but for over half an hour in my house Tabloid was unwatchable. On both digital and analogue signals. Even when it came back I had to occasionally flick between HD, SD and analogue depending which died. I don’t know what we’ll do when it’s digital only. I guess with C31, Ten, SBS and sometimes the ABC just wait for the signal to work. Some of them it could take hours.
Great news for soccer fans who don’t have pay TV. I remembered many of them opposed Fox Sports getting the rights to Socceroos matches (including World Cup qualifiers). If I remember correctly, when the Federal Government wanted to include the Socceroos matches in the new anti-siphoning list a few years ago, Fox Sports threatened to sue the FFA for compensation because the move would diminish the value of the contract. Showing the matches on delay on SBS is a good start, hopefully when the rights are renegotiated in a few years’ time, SBS will get the chance to show them live, and exclusively.
Hooray!
Would love SBS to win the rights for the 2014 and 2016 Olympics to add to their coverage of the beautiful game and TDF! Hope SBS and Fox Sports have a joint partnership to broadcast the 2015 Rugby World Cup, 4 Nations and Super 15.
Yay!
So SBS’s bid hasn’t anything to do with the Del Piero signing? Think again.
That would be good for soccer. Most of the A-league clubs are not making money and they need more exposure to grow the game.
When they restructured the FFA and founded the A-league they so badly needed Foxsports’ money they didn’t really have any choice. And soccer doesn’t televise well with ads during play.
@deedeedragons
It’s been done already, SBS broadcast live coverage of the Wales v Australia match last year, and made a much, much better job of it than any of Nine’s recent attempts!
“…SBS staved off a late bid from TEN…”
Did anyone else think of a woman of indeterminate Mediterranean heritage hitting a weakened, thin, pale man on his hands and knees, about the head with the leafy part of a celery stick, or is it just me?
@blindowl – can’t get much more multicultural than the World Game. SBS2 has more of the non-English drama content that you appear to be seeking.
Great news SBS.
A bit embarrassing Ten – lost the AFL then the NRL bid and now been outplayed by SBS for the A League.
Very strong management and negotiators !
@ blindowl..I’m pretty happy with Sbs and their movies and late docs…problem is quality doesn’t get rewarded.I don’t expect to see a better doc this year than Tabloid..and it got 80k.I think occasionally a Michael Moore movie gets over 100k but I think that’s about it.So for what Sbs knows they’re gonna garner audience wise,I’m happy to get movies like Winter’s Bone,Junebug,No Country For Old Men,Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and Tabloid.I’m not interested in their sports but hope they do well,cause like you, I’d like too see a reinvestment in new series(like Boardwalk Empire),and movies.Lastly..they’ve got to reverse the damage done by replacing L&N with Countdown..a 128k show with a 36k…it’d be like a 7 exec axing a 1.28 mill show for a 360k one.Whoever was responsible for that boneheaded move(and it’s not like Sbs is replete with viewers that it can casually jettison 92,000 of them),which is affecting their later programming too,ought to be given 6 months to get the numbers at least back to status quo ante,or have his can kicked out the door.
@HardcorePrawn: Union being on SBS, i like it! So crazy it would probably work.
This is great news for both SBS and the A League.
If only SBS were able to wrangle the rights to the Rugby and the 2016 Olympics away from Nine I’d be a happy man!
Sorry but I think SBS should get back to being the multicultural channel and spend the money of foreign language series and movies – they are repeating the same movies ad nauseum. All they seem to show these days is soccer, cycling and cooking! They’ve really lost the plot and forgotten why they were introduced!
I’m not a soccer fan but this is great news, and it’ll make me watch matches again. And thank god Ten didn’t get the rights.
Good news. SBS always does a good job with their sport, be it the soccer they already have, the Tour de France, or the Ashes cricket when they stepped in during 2009.
Great news if the deal does happen for soccer in Australia. Being a regular watcher of SBS coverage, I’m sure they’ll treat the sport with respect and with the coverage it needs.
Although about Socceroos’ matches, I hope any WC qualifiers/friendlies that are played in Australia are shown live. While having a delay for away games isn’t ideal in this day and age, the A-League coverage makes up for this.