It is Venture Insights’ view that traditional Australian broadcasters will be unable to fund further increases to the cost of tier one sports as they continue to suffer from declining revenues in hyper-competitive markets. As such, premium Australian sports are likely to further split their rights, selling portions to non-traditional telco or tech players. In the long-run, Australian sports may even look at selling their content direct to consumer through ‘over the top’ distribution models.

The recent round of sports rights deals has left us with three Australian sports generating over A$1bn in medium-term deals. This figure is high considering the declining revenues of broadcasters and the stagnating viewership numbers of some tier one sports. In this report we discuss the current state of the Australian sports rights market, delve into the current struggle of traditional broadcasters, particularly Foxtel, and contemplate what’s next for the delivery of sports content.

Contents

Key Takeaways

Australian sports rights are rising fast

Australian broadcasters are struggling

Other dynamics are at play

Tech and telco giants are circling

Something will happen…soon

List of charts/tables

Figure 1. Australian big 4 sports rights cost over time

Figure 2. Cost per viewer for AFL and NRL

Figure 3. Australian major broadcasters’ revenues (2013A-2019A)

Figure 4. Change in Foxtel subscribers Q2, Q3 and Q4 Calendar 2019

Figure 5. Changes in the number of sporting events protected under Anti-siphoning by sporting code

Figure 6. Timetable of upcoming available sports rights in Australia