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With Optus purchasing the English Premier League TV rights in Australia for their Fetch TV service, Fox Sports are set to lose the rights to the biggest football competition on the planet.
Football fans in Australia and Fox Sports will feel like they have lost out in a big way by the new deal, while the biggest winners are the biggest rugby league competition on the planet, the NRL.
With five channels to fill, plus Fox Footy, Fox Sports need a solid sports program to attract and keep subscribers to their service.
They teamed the Premier League up with the A-League and the occasional replay of other major competitions for plenty of pulling power over football fans. However, with the loss of the EPL from the start of the 2016-17 season, many Foxtel customers have threatened to disconnect from the service. Their main reasoning is that the A-League alone is not enough content to justify forking out $50 per month.
So, how does this benefit the NRL?
Earlier this year the NRL signed a $925 million deal to show four games each weekend on the Nine Network from the beginning of the 2017 season. Fox Sports – a long-time partner of the NRL, with six live and exclusive games each weekend – were not at all happy with the deal, with many speculating it ended up costing former NRL CEO David Smith his job.
Signing the deal with Nine really put Fox Sports executives offside. However, without the EPL for extra content, Fox Sports need to secure the NRL – they might even need to replicate what they have done with the AFL and Fox Footy to lock in subscribers.
The upcoming deal between Fox Sports and the NRL could determine Foxtel’s future. Without premium NRL content – which means lots of live games, whether they are exclusive or not – Fox Sports will lose a lot of their remaining subscriber base, which will surely result in massive downsizing.
Fox Sports can ill afford that, which means they must keep the NRL.
This gives the NRL extra bargaining power in contract negotiations, and they can really get a good dollar value out of Fox Sports – plus maybe even their own channel, which fans have been crying out for after seeing the workings of Fox Footy over the last number of seasons.
Whichever way you look at it, this English Premier League deal with Optus has fallen right into the NRL’s lap and saved whatever they lost by signing early with the Nine Network and upsetting executives at Foxtel.
As an NRL fan, exciting times are ahead.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde