Report: ASIC investigation into Australian Open broadcast rights
Tennis Australia said to be under investigation for selling broadcast rights to the Australian Open without a competitive bidding process.
- Published by David Knox
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There are reports Tennis Australia is under investigation by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission for selling broadcast rights to the Australian Open without a competitive bidding process.
Tennis Australia sold the 2015-2019 broadcasting rights to Seven for some $200 million.
The revelation comes just days before the finals in Australia’s premier tennis tournament, which will be televised to a massive international audience.
The Australian Securities and Investment Commission is investigating Tennis Australia’s decision to sell the 2015-2019 broadcasting rights to long-time partner Seven in 2013 without launching a competitive bidding process.
The deal is estimated to have cost Tennis Australia up to $50 million in lost revenue.
But Seven’s commercial director Bruce McWilliam told Fairfax, “A disaffected former board director has made the allegation notwithstanding they voted for the deal. The deal was a fantastic deal unanimously approved by the Board.”
Tennis Australia last year ordered an independent review into whether a serving board member in 2013 had an undisclosed material conflict of interest during the negotiations.
An ASIC spokesman said the agency does not confirm or deny the existence of investigations.
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5 Responses
Realistically, none of the networks could take two out of three in regards to the tennis, international cricket and BBL
I meant to write a longer post, damn phone!
The relevant sporting bodies want main channel coverage, there’s only three of those to go around. The only way things would change is if for example, Seven decided to ditch the tennis and make a play for one of the cricket contracts. Only problem is they’d risk ending up with nothing.
There were rumours about Nine targeting BBL but I think Cricket Australia are quite happy to have different broadcasters – it’s more like NFL or Premier League in that there are multiple broadcasters for the same sport. It creates a point of difference, even when it’s the same game!
Laurie’s comment, what a load of rubbish.
I really hope ASIC looks into this dodgy deal typical of Channel 7. More Dodgy than ever.
What is rubbish about it?
The only real competition to Seven for Tennis is Foxtel with the Cricket on Nine and the Big bash on Ten that excludes those 2 networks!!