AFL Secures Trio of Broadcast Deals Worth USD1.37bn

A deal worth a combined A$1.25 billion (US$1.37 billion) to the Australian Football League (AFL) has been agreed by Seven West Media, ed Foxtel Management Pty Ltd. and Telstra Corp. to broadcast matches from 2012-16.

Seven West Media will broadcast four games each week during the AFL Premiership season, ask while pay-TV provider Foxtel will show every game of the season live except the grand final and re-establish a dedicated channel for the sport, salve the AFL said today.

Combined with the agreement with Telstra for online rights, officials including AFL Chief Executive Officer Andrew Demetriou negotiated the sport’s biggest broadcast deal as the league moves toward an 18-team competition from 2012 with the addition of a club based in western Sydney. The total cash contribution is worth A$1.118 billion ($1.218bn) compared with A$749 million ($815.8m) in the previous agreement, Demetriou said.

“This is a great outcome for the football industry,” Demetriou said in a televised news conference in Melbourne. “We didn’t set out to set records. We tried to do the best in the interests of the code.”

Foxtel is Australia’s biggest pay television operator with 1.55 million direct subscribers at December 31. Foxtel is half-owned by Telstra, the nation’s largest phone company, while 25 per cent stakes are held by Rupert Murdoch’s News. Corp. and James Packer’s Consolidated Media Holdings Ltd. (CMJ).

Foxtel acquired the rights to exclusively show five of the nine regular-season games live in each round starting next year. Seven West secured free-to-air rights for four matches a week and hasn’t ruled out on-selling some games to rival Ten Network Holdings Ltd. (TEN), according to CEO David Leckie.