There is little doubt that Matildas mania took the world by storm last year, but in the wake of the FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign, what lasting impacts are Australia’s beloved Tillie’s having? For Football Australia, that impact is huge, potentially securing the institution a $200 million TV deal.
Lead image: credit- Matildas Facebook page
Football Australia is reportedly in the final stages of negotiations on a deal with Network Ten that will extend the current broadcast deal for four more years. The Australian reports that this deal could be worth double the $100 million agreement currently in place.
The deal is reportedly all but done and will include the broadcast rights to the 2026 Asian Cup women’s tournament and the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil. Seven West Media broadcast the heartbreaking moment the Matilda’s were kicked out of the World Cup semi-final by England last year. The broadcast drew a national audience of 7.132 million viewers, making it the most-watched broadcast in more than two decades.
More recently, the Matildas Olympic qualifying win over Uzbekistan was watched by an audience of 2.1 million – a massive result for Network Ten.
As is common with these kinds of deals, Network Ten and Football Australia have not spoken publicly about the negotiations. Football Australia chief executive James Johnson told The Australian that, given that broadcasters would previously have had to deal directly with global soccer bodies to make these kinds of deals, the package of rights it has collected to sell was unique.
“What it does strategically is it creates a one-stop shop for Matildas and Socceroos content over the next four-year cycle, and it is a creative way to come up with a new package broadcast deal”.
Sponsorship & Other Revenue Streams
Just a few years ago, Football Australia relied on deals of this nature to survive, but off the back of the Matildas success, sponsorship streams now account for a large volume of the organisation’s revenue.
“But today, you’ve got strong sponsorship and other revenue streams, like merchandise, the broadcasting for national teams only, and also ticketing revenue,” Johnson said. “So we think we’re strong on the revenue side, and we’re pretty excited about where it will be going”.
At the AANA’s RESET conference earlier this month, Football Australia deputy chair Jackie Lee-Joe said the Tillies were mindful of keeping the conversion going. The team grew their following by 850,000 during the World Cup, and activity garnered 335 million social media impressions and 122 million plus social media video views.
Lee-Joe pointed out that the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand has set “a totally new standard” as the most successful edition of the tournament to date.
The tournament’s economic impact was $1.32 billion, with 2 billion viewers worldwide. “In terms of the legacy of investment, our co-hosting of the World Cup led to the unlocking of about $398 million of federal and state government funding, of which a third, $129 million, positively benefit other sports,” she said.
A Win For Access To Free Sport
This kind of deal is groundbreaking at a time when so much debate surrounds Australians’ access to free sport. A massive overhaul of Australia’s anti-siphoning laws, which grant free-to-air networks first dibs on broadcast rights for major sporting events, is underway.
First introduced in 1992, the laws stop pay television networks from purchasing broadcast rights for sporting events of “national importance and cultural significance” unless free-to-air channels have already purchased the rights for the event.
The Australian Parliament is now considering a new Bill that includes streaming platforms in these laws but only offers free sports to Australians with an aerial. It does not guarantee that you will get free sports if you choose to stream it over the internet or don’t have an aerial. So, if you have no aerial, there is no guarantee that you will have access to free sports in the future.
Just a few weeks ago, free-to-air networks Seven, Nine, and Ten joined forces with Free TV to launch a new advertising campaign, “Free Sport Is On The Line,” lobbying the federal government to amend its proposed changes to the anti-siphoning bill.
At the time, Network Ten president and head of streaming at Paramount Australia and New Zealand, Beverley McGarvey, said that “when Australians go to free-to-air TV, they increasingly don’t even think of an aerial as the gateway; they simply access our channels and content whenever they want, wherever they are and on whatever device they choose”.
“It’s no different with the big sports events. Australians’ free access to the Australian Formula One Grand Prix or the Matildas and Socceroos shouldn’t be governed by how they choose to access our channels. They don’t think that way, and neither should the government when devising the anti-siphoning and prominence laws for all Australians and their TVs”.
The Matildas will take on China on Monday night in a pre-Olympic friendly match. The game will be broadcast live on Network Ten from 7:30pm.