Last Saturday night’s 1.14 million reach for Tottenham’s 2–0 win over Manchester City on Nine’s free-to-air broadcast was more than just a ratings milestone, it was a reminder of football’s untapped potential in Australia.
In a crowded sports market dominated by AFL and NRL, the Premier League managed to cut through with a late-night timeslot, pulling an average national audience of 326,000 and topping the key 25–54 demographic. Add to that the 855,000 reach from Aston Villa v Newcastle the previous week, and a clear picture emerges: when football is made accessible, Australians will watch in big numbers.
Why Stan Should be Eyeing A-League Rights
Channel 9 and Stan have an opportunity to completely monopolise football in the country but to do that, they must acquire the missing piece, the A-Leagues rights.
Unlike the Premier League, the A-Leagues offer prime-time kick offs and strong local narratives which makes for more accessible viewing.
Paramount and Channel 10 have struggled to give the league that platform. Matches are often hidden away on secondary channels like 10 BOLD, coverage is limited to one or two games a week on free-to-air and streaming on Paramount+ has been plagued with reliability issues. Despite a significant financial outlay, the execution has left the league stranded in a broadcasting backwater.
By contrast, Nine and Stan have the reach, the technical capacity to run a more reliable stream, and, crucially, the momentum. Their EPL coverage has already demonstrated football’s ability to deliver big audiences. Adding the A-Leagues would consolidate that position and allow them to market themselves as “The Home of Football” in Australia.
Challenging the Code Wars on Free-to-Air TV and Media
Whilst the topic of ‘code wars’ has been flogged to death in Australian football spaces, it’s clear that Nine Entertainment Co. is uniquely positioned to challenge the current narrative about the sport.
Since acquiring Fairfax Media in 2018, it has access to a wide-range of popular and powerful media spaces that Channel 10 don’t possess.
Recently we’ve seen 3AW and Jacqueline Felgate talk about topics like the way football fans are treated in the media compared to AFL and NRL fans, as well as the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age writing about the record viewership numbers it got for both Aston Villa-Newcastle and Manchester City-Tottenham fixtures in unconventional timeslots.
This isn’t even including the extra time in the nightly sports bulletins on 9News that is leveraging its Premier League rights to show more highlights every night.
It’s a change in tune that is long overdue and the viewing numbers challenge the dominance of AFL and NRL on free-to-air television, proving that football can attract audiences on par with Australia’s traditional powerhouse sports.
If given regular free-to-air exposure, football could reshape the balance of sports broadcasting and force broadcasters to reconsider how they divide resources across codes.
Football is Australia’s Sleeping Giant
The numbers don’t lie. From grassroots participation to the impressive viewership numbers of the past fortnight with Premier League coverage, football has always been Australia’s sleeping giant. What it has lacked is a broadcast partner willing to take it seriously, something that hasn’t been done since the Foxtel days.
There is clear demand for football at every level of the game and “The World Game” consistently proves it can punch above its weight in an already crowded sports market.
What supporters want most is easier, free access to both local and international football. The appetite is visible not only in the strong broadcast numbers but also in the popularity of the events that surround them.
Pubs such as The Imperial Hotel regularly pack out for Liverpool matches, while Stan Sport’s own Manchester City v Tottenham fan event at Federation Square drew a decent crowd in cold weather. The Socceroos and Matildas have enjoyed the same response, with live sites across Australia filling during both World Cups.
All of this points to a simple conclusion: football has the audience, the atmosphere and the momentum. What it needs now is a permanent home on free-to-air television, and Nine and Stan are best placed to make that a reality.
Conclusion
The message from these broadcasts could not be clearer: football deserves a permanent place on free-to-air television in Australia.
For too long, the A-League has been buried on secondary channels or hidden behind unreliable streaming platforms, denying the sport the mainstream exposure it needs.
Nine and Stan now have the opportunity to reshape football’s standing by pairing international prestige with local storytelling, delivering consistent prime-time access for fans across the country.
If they seize it, they won’t just be filling a broadcast slot, they’ll be unlocking the full potential of Australia’s sleeping giant and changing the balance of power in the nation’s sporting landscape.
