News Corp and Telstra will sell Foxtel in a US$2.2bn (A$3.4bn) deal, the companies announced on Monday.

[Holden Hillbilly]

DAZN, a global sports streaming service, has agreed to buy a majority stake in the Australian pay television business, including the Kayo and Binge streaming services and the new Hubbl platform, subject to regulatory approval. Under the agreement, Foxtel will continue to be run by its local chief executive, Patrick Delany, who said he was grateful for News Corp’s support to reinvigorate the platform.

“Today’s announcement is a natural evolution for the Foxtel Group,” he said. “[DAZN] are experts in the sports media business and can play a significant role in supporting Foxtel as the business grows its streaming capabilities.”

Foxtel had for decades been a highly lucrative revenue stream for News Corp but the media company had looked to offload the pay television service under competition from growing numbers of streaming services. Australians have dropped subscriptions to the Foxtel Now streaming service, while flocking to Kayo and Binge, according to disclosures in its August earnings results.

News Corp and Telstra agree sale of Foxtel to sports streaming service DAZN for $3.4bn

Pay TV channel sells along with the streaming services Kayo and Binge, subject to regulatory approval

www.theguardian.com

 

[kalex6251]

the washup from this will be interesting

expect soccer zealots will see it as an another opportunity to kickstart their faltering professional league

the impact on afl/nrl is less clear (although nrl will be somewhat nervous given their pay-tv rights are up for renewal - happy to be corrected)

cricket? womens sport? lot of unknowns here

 

[Philhawk]

Nrl tv rights will be fascinating. Could go either way. NRL don’t get the number they want and AFL sit pretty with an early, long term deal - or NRL get the bag with an inexperienced new owner who won’t want to lose a top sport

 

[hamohawk1]

Can see the price of Kayo continuing to rise to around $60-70 a month in years to come.

 

[robbieando]

Can see the price of Kayo continuing to rise to around $60-70 a month in years to come.

DAZN in Europe for its major markets such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain is 20 euros ($30 aud) a month if your on a 12 month contract and 30 euros ($50 aud) a month, if you want to purchase if month by month.

I expect the price to increase to $50 fairly quickly for Kayo, then they will only offer the current prices for those who sign for 12 months.

 

[Wizard]

DAZN has had NFL Gamepass for almost 2 years now and it has been a HUGE step backwards, not excited by this one bit.

 

[Mofra]

DAZN in Europe for its major markets such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain is 20 euros ($30 aud) a month if your on a 12 month contract and 30 euros ($50 aud) a month, if you want to purchase if month by month.

I expect the price to increase to $50 fairly quickly for Kayo, then they will only offer the current prices for those who sign for 12 months.

The bigger watch will be the impact of club digital memberships which seem to be growing across all 18 coins.
Given the "support the club" purpose behind those memberships, the purchasers will be seen as less price sensitive so could be up for a fee hike next year too

 

[hamohawk1]

Sports in Aus (not necessarily afl or nrl) have been killed by moving their product to a pay tv base over the last 20ish years.

Will be observing how this impacts all sports if subscription costs inch up, seems to really kill the prospects of a sport here once tv ratings dip.

 

[GC2015]

The impact on afl/nrl is less clear (although nrl will be somewhat nervous given their pay-tv rights are up for renewal - happy to be corrected)

Huge news when you really think about it. Both leagues are in expansion mode at the moment and you'd have to think DAZN will have an influence when it comes to the decision making. Does Perth suddenly look far more appealing for a 20th AFL team given the time zone opportunities on offer? Will DAZN want more exposure/games in the biggest and third biggest markets of NSW and Queensland? Will they put pressure on the league to move teams out of the oversaturated Melbourne market in favour of other parts of the country?

What about the NRL? Is DAZN keen on this PNG team? I'm sure they are interested in a Perth NRL team given the time zone opportunities. Will DAZN try to tinker with the State of Origin model? Is State of Origin in the AFL something that DAZN wants to explore? We know there's already broadcasting separation occurring next year with Channel 7 & Foxtel having different commentary and Foxtel essentially owning Saturday games for most of the home and away season.

So many questions and we really have no idea what this British streaming service has planned for Australian sport.

 

[Bjo187]

The interesting thing is, would the AFL have still done the deal in late 2022 if they knew they weren't getting the news corp flow on affect in their newspapers and websites? I mean there will still be exposure, but news.corp won't be as invested in promoting the product as they were previously and that was one of the major selling points in continuing to go with foxtel.

I was also concerned at the time that they did the deal too far out in a massively changing landscape and locking themselves in effectively from 2022 to 2031 in this space was an odd decision. Goyder wasn't confident in Dillon doing the negotiations so wanted Gill to do it before he left, which tells you something.

It might end up a masterstroke because the fta networks are struggling (10 just posted a 300 mill loss again this year), but at the same time, international streamers might have paid through the nose a year or two later to get a peice of the pie.

The good thing is, there shouldn't be as much nrl bias through fox/kayo in their promoting, as Lachlan Murdoch isn't pulling the strings behind the scenes anymore, so the number 1 sport in the country won't be relegated to number 2 anymore on the platform.

 

[GC2015]

The good thing is, there shouldn't be as much nrl bias through fox/kayo in their promoting, as Lachlan Murdoch isn't pulling the strings behind the scenes anymore, so the number 1 sport in the country won't be relegated to number 2 anymore on the platform.

That's a great point. News Corp own around 66% of the Brisbane Broncos and it's long been discussed that they receive favourable treatment in several areas such as broadcast scheduling, media coverage etc. DAZN won't have the same kind of motivation to look after the Broncos going forward and that's great news for the AFL in Queensland.

 

[robbieando]

Huge news when you really think about it. Both leagues are in expansion mode at the moment and you'd have to think DAZN will have an influence when it comes to the decision making. Does Perth suddenly look far more appealing for a 20th AFL team given the time zone opportunities on offer? Will DAZN want more exposure/games in the biggest and third biggest markets of NSW and Queensland? Will they put pressure on the league to move teams out of the oversaturated Melbourne market in favour of other parts of the country?

What about the NRL? Is DAZN keen on this PNG team? I'm sure they are interested in a Perth NRL team given the time zone opportunities. Will DAZN try to tinker with the State of Origin model? Is State of Origin in the AFL something that DAZN wants to explore? We know there's already broadcasting separation occurring next year with Channel 7 & Foxtel having different commentary and Foxtel essentially owning Saturday games for most of the home and away season.

So many questions and we really have no idea what this British streaming service has planned for Australian sport.

They haven't made many changes to the way things are done for the rights they have in European Soccer, I wouldn't expect changes to how things are done more the production side of things.

I think the AFL will hold off on a 20th team until after the next TV Rights team to see what the market looks like. Having a consistent home for our global TV rights will helpful long term.

The NRL I think will regret expanding into PNG over Perth with their next contract, will depend on the bidding war Nine/Stan want to put against DAZN. DAZN will find these rights useful to a point in the UK and NZ to help build their offering in both markets but not at the point where its an increase on what is being paid already.

 

[Billy ray]

Does Perth suddenly look far more appealing for a 20th AFL team given the time zone opportunities on offer?

they dont use the timezone now!

 

[GC2015]

They haven't made many changes to the way things are done for the rights they have in European Soccer, I wouldn't expect changes to how things are done more the production side of things.

I think the AFL will hold off on a 20th team until after the next TV Rights team to see what the market looks like. Having a consistent home for our global TV rights will helpful long term.

The NRL I think will regret expanding into PNG over Perth with their next contract, will depend on the bidding war Nine/Stan want to put against DAZN. DAZN will find these rights useful to a point in the UK and NZ to help build their offering in both markets but not at the point where its an increase on what is being paid already.

European soccer isn't set up the same way and there's less control over the teams that compete at the top level. We have an American-like franchise model that's far easier to control. There's nothing stopping the AFL from starting a third team in Perth next year - introducing another London based team into the Premier League next year would be difficult due to the promotion-relegation nature of their league. There's a reason we've seen American teams move from smaller/less appealing markets like San Diego, St Louis and Oakland for bigger/more appealing markets like Los Angeles and Las Vegas in recent years.

I think the NRL will commit to a Perth expansion team very soon, but I do think they should've done that before the PNG venture. The NRL have made it pretty clear that they want 20 teams so I'd imagine a third Brisbane franchise is going to come into play soon. A 20th team in the south island of NZ will probably round out the NRL.

they dont use the timezone now!

Correct. Former Foxtel owner News Corp Australia is an east coast Australian organisation based in Sydney that has biases towards their own market. DAZN don't have a reason to preference the east coast over the west coast in terms of scheduling. Start an AFL game at 7:00pm on the east coast and it'll end around 9:40pm. Roll straight into a west coast game and it'll end just after midnight on the east coast. This is commonplace with east/west coast sports scheduling in America and should be something the AFL takes advantage of. DAZN may be the ones to make it happen.

 

[robbieando]

Long Term this deal will be bad for all Australian sporting codes but the last line explains why the NRL likely will come out of it worse.

Foxtel sale a Christmas miracle for the Murdochs

News Corp has finally found a buyer for its storied pay TV offering. But what does the future hold for viewers, staff and sports deals?

www.theage.com.au

And while DAZN has a record of investing in domestic sports rights in major markets such as Japan, Germany and France, the likes of the NRL’s Peter V’Landys and the AFL’s Andrew Dillon may eventually appear too small fry for the streamer now cosying up with FIFA boss Gianni Infantino and oil-rich Saudis.

Those behind the deal at DAZN say the company’s resolve for the NRL and its like, which is about to kick off broadcast negotiations for the 2027 season and beyond, has only strengthened, but V’Landys may have to adjust expectations for a bumper deal in the region the AFL managed to land in 2022.

 

[Bjo187]

Long Term this deal will be bad for all Australian sporting codes but the last line explains why the NRL likely will come out of it worse.

Foxtel sale a Christmas miracle for the Murdochs

News Corp has finally found a buyer for its storied pay TV offering. But what does the future hold for viewers, staff and sports deals?

www.theage.com.au

Well dazn are losing a fair bit of money elsewhere, so seem happy to run at a loss for some reason. However, if they're strictly running a business model to earn money, there is no way when they deep dive into the data that they will see the NRL rights as important as the AFL ones and the AFL probably got overs at the time too. The afl going to more standalone games won't help the nrl either, coz it will expose their false claim of more viewers, as the afl won't be splitting viewers as much across multiple games every weekend.

I think I remember hearing at the time the new afl deal will take over 50 percent of all tv money in Australian sport. I think now that the NRL don't have their mate Murdoch owning foxtel, they might end up with Stan or Amazon (if they have any interest). Netflix already have the Australian market covered, so don't really need it.