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Fetch eyes Aussie Rules rights
Rose Major ©RapidTVNews | 21-03-2010
A prospective Australian IPTV operator, partly backed by Malaysia’s Astro All Asia Networks, could prove an irritant for Foxtel and Fox Sports, the dominant pay-TV sports rights buyers in the market.
Fetch TV plans to provide a package of TV channels and services to Australia internet service providers from later this year. The company is likely to be in the bidding for the valuable Australian Rules football (AFL) contract which will run 2011 to 2016 and could become very active in a market which lacks much pay-TV competition.
Fetch is reportedly already sounding out potential free-to-air partners for the AFL contract, with Network Ten thought most likely to agree a joint bid. The current contract partners Ten with Seven Network, with pay-TV rights then on-sold to Fox Sports, Foxtel and regional platform Austar. Between them, the pay-TV companies paid A$315.5 million over five years for four live games a week.
Ten now has its own free-to-air sports channel, One, so may prefer to bid alone for free-to-air rights this time, rather than with another free-to-air broadcaster. That would be done in the hope that the government may change the rules from next year and allow it to show whatever matches it likes on its multichannel. Currently, broadcasters are restricted from showing an event on the list exclusively on their digital multichannels.
Over the last few years, Foxtel has generally bid for pay-TV rights for sports and other key pay-TV drivers unopposed. But negotiations for the next English Premier League contract last November saw Fetch enter the market. Although Fox Sports/Foxtel did win rights for that competition, Fetch’s presence could have pushed the price up.
© Rapid TV News 2010
