Paramount Plus must pounce on EPL rights in Australia

ViacomCBS have begun broadcasting Australian football content in the past several weeks across the 10 Network and its free streaming platform 10 play, in the opening stages of the company’s $300 million investment deal into the game.

The majority of content, such as Socceroos, Matildas, A-League and W-League matches, will eventually be broadcast on the company’s SVOD service Paramount Plus in the coming months.

A revamped presentation of the game will be implemented across the new TV deal, as highlighted by the recent announcement that the Saturday night A-League broadcast shown on Channel 10 will also feature live crosses and a ‘goal rush’ type innovation involving the other simultaneous match, something which is currently seen in top league broadcasts around the world.

Fresh ideas such as this are welcomed, but ViacomCBS may need to look at further options to build rapport with fans of the round ball game in Australia.

One of those opportunities they should pursue, and strongly, is looking to secure the EPL rights off Optus Sport.

Optus Sport have held the rights since 2016, after beating out Foxtel at the time.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, English Premier League officials have begun talks with local media companies in regards to the broadcast rights to one of the world’s biggest sporting competitions.

Optus Sport’s existing deal ends at the conclusion of this season, with a blind auction in November set to decide who will show the league in the coming seasons.

ViacomCBS’s Paramount Plus is considered to be one of four candidates who are reportedly in the running to land the EPL broadcast rights, alongside current rights holders Optus Sport, Amazon Prime and Stan Sport.

The rights are expected to cost as much as $80 million a year, but that figure may be higher if there is a strong competitive process for them, which looks likely.

If the EPL was to be secured and shown on Paramount Plus, there would be significant benefits across the board for ViacomCBS and also for football in Australia.

Having both the EPL and A-League on the same service would place Paramount Plus as a must have service for the large majority of football fans in Australia.

The acquisition of the EPL would add a huge amount of value to Paramount Plus as a streaming product and bring over those fans who would not commit to the service for just A-League and W-League matches.

Their subscriber numbers would grow substantially, and a free-to-air EPL game on Channel 10 may be a strategic possibility, to draw even more people to sign up for the subscription service.

Alongside the original entertainment programming that they have on their service, Paramount Plus with the EPL and A-League rights, will go close to rivalling the bigger streaming platforms such as Netflix and Stan.

For Australian football, having both leagues together in the one place would mirror similar benefits the A-League had on Fox Sports when they also showcased live EPL broadcasts.

Most Australian football fans will remember Matchday Saturday on Fox Sports with great fondness, where A-League matches would precede EPL matches in what was a feast for football fans every week, all in one place.

The A-League peaked in popularity around that timeframe, and it’s plausible that a larger quantity of fans tuned into the local domestic competition before they would also watch EPL matches later in the night.

Administrators from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) will be hoping a sense of deja vu occurs again, on a different platform this time around.

Packaging up the two leagues would provide cross promotional possibilities to continue to lift the profile of the A-League and may eventually convince fans of overseas clubs to also support a local team.

Turning general fans of football into A-League or W-League supporters is something that the APL have noted they are focusing on in the years to come, after unbundling from the FA.

Utilizing the advantages of having the Premier League rights on the same service may fast track those outcomes, but that is dependant on the willingness and commercial factors which decide ViacomCBS’s next moves.

However, for growth prospects in the local game and also in their own Paramount Plus streaming service, ViacomCBS may find this opportunity too good to refuse.

 

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Viewership skyrockets for the start of the A-League season

The A-League season kicked off last weekend with a rise in viewership watching the penultimate 20th anniversary.

The biggest increase was the Sydney Derby where the number of viewers on 10 Play became the most-viewed regular season fixture in the league’s history with a 46% increase from the same match last season as recorded by The 10 Network.

A couple of factors can be associated with this result. Importantly, it was the first game of the season, building on the start-of-the-season excitement.

The Sydney Derby has been one of the most watched and attended fixture in the A-league since the addition of the Western Sydney Wanderers in the 2012/2013 season.

Last season, it was only beaten in attendance and viewership by the top-of-the-table clash of Wellington Phoenix vs Melbourne Victory which recorded 33,000 attendees.

However, this isn’t just a sudden rising trend but has been growing from season-to-season. The 2023-2024 season recorded the largest amount of viewership in the league’s history with 53 per cent on Paramount+ and 33 percent on 10 Play, while free-to-air TV saw a 16 percent rise on Network 10.

The 2023/24 Final Series had a sell-out attendance every game and The Grand Final averaged 316,000 on 10 and 10 Play (29,000), with a reach of 731,000.

In total, the Grand Final had a reach of around 1.17 million, making it the most-watched finals series since the 2009-2010 finals.

The overall viewership for both the A-League Men’s and Women’s 2023/24 seasons reached 5.72 million Australians across all modes of media.

A key part of last season’s success was the increase in viewership of the Women’s Liberty League (now the Ninja Women’s A-League). The biggest stat was the 611% increase in club memberships. A big part of the increase in support is credited to the rise of support in women’s football following the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

Another point to argue is the arrival of high-profile players in the league with West Sydney Wanderers’ new marquee signing ex-Manchester United and Chelsea player Juan Mata and Sydney FC’s ex-Juventus and Brazil International Douglas Costa. These players’ arrival to the league has gained massive interest from the reflective teams and the league as a whole.

Their debuts in a Sydney Derby pitted against each other was an event that would, of course, gain huge traction and kick off the league with some big ratings. It’s still up in the air whether their star status and hopeful exciting impact can maintain viewership throughout the season.

This A-League Season has also introduced a new club with Auckland FC. Their first home game of the season vs Brisbane Roar held 24,400 spectators only a couple thousand shy from the WSW spectators at the derby.

The inclusion of a new team representing New Zealand’s most populated area is a promising move towards more A-League spectators from NZ and increasing the overall number of viewers.

From all six A-league games of the first round, the number of spectators from last season (not counting Auckland FC) went up 53%.

Now this is the beginning of the season, and a true measure of success can only be recorded at the end of the season.

To add to this, other than the top 3 most attended games, the rest of the league recorded similar if not more negative results for the first-round attendance and presented a huge gap between the top three watched games and the lower three.

Though with the goal of a year-on-year rise in fan engagement, the success of last season and the obvious steps taken by the clubs and the leagues to further enrich the league (marquee signings, an added NZ derby and more investment) one can be confident that the Isuzu A-league and Ninja Women’s A -League are promising another record-breaking season for the game.

Is it time to make the A-League Women a full-time professional competition?

Newcastle Jets Women

In the last fortnight, Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) released their annual A-League Women’s report, providing an overview of the current state of the women’s game at the highest level in Australia.

Throughout the document the PFA pinpointed their key recommendation, make the A-League Women’s (ALW) competition a full-time professional league.

The association had previously earmarked this as their number one priority in the year prior, but have now doubled down – setting a timeline for implementation by the 2026-2027 season.

The timeframe has come from extensive feedback from stakeholders within the game, with the vast majority of players agreeing that action on this front must come sooner rather than later.

The report outlined in detail the difficulties players are having with the current part-time nature of the league – with most players not on 12-month contracts, minimum wages set at $25,000 and club salary caps sitting at $600,000 per season.

The representative body also highlighted the threat to the competition based on significant progress of other women’s sporting leagues here in Australia and more importantly overseas women’s football leagues.

“The global growth of women’s football presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the A-League Women,” PFA Co-Chief Executive Kate Gill stated.

“Our players recognise that the league must embrace full-time professionalism by 2026 to remain competitive on the global stage.

“Our league and club leaders must unite behind a new vision that drives professionalism, commercial growth, and investment.”

Competitions such as the UK Women’s Super League (WSL) and the US National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), have continued to build their presence in the global landscape.

The WSL has had a 700% increase in attendances, since establishing themselves as a full- time professional league in 2018.

The NWSL has recently increased its salary cap by 40% to $4.1 million for the 2024 season, after securing a significant broadcast deal worth 40 times more than their previous one.

Alongside this, a new American professional league, the United Soccer League’s Super League (USLS) launched in August of this year – with plans underway to continue to expand the competition.

These developments will continue to affect the ALW’s ability to not only retain but also attract talent to the Australian competition, as player salaries and conditions continue to rise in overseas leagues.

Of the 106 foreign player transfers into the ALW since 2018, 63 were Americans. 46% of the imported players (across all nationalities) came directly from the NWSL. With professionalism and club standards continuing to reach greater heights in competitions in America, for example, the ALW may continue to fall behind and not be an attractive proposition for foreign players coming into our competition, but also for players already competing in the ALW.

According to 2023-2024 end of season surveys conducted by the association, ALW players have now rated the NWSL as the second most preferred league to play in, behind the WSL in the UK.

In the previous year, 56% of ALW players put the ALW ahead of the NWSL on their respective lists, but a year later only 41% of players did the same.

It’s a clear sign that these leagues overseas are offering superior opportunities for players, which the ALW needs to try to combat and minimise this impact immediately.

With full time professionalism in the Australian competition set as a clear goal by the PFA, the commercial viability of the league will be at the forefront of any discussions around this.

The ALW did increase their crowds organically in the past season by 72 percent (on the back of a Women’s World Cup on home soil) however the PFA believes there were still strategic missteps that could have led to even further growth.

Based on fan focus groups setup by the organisation, newly converted Matildas fans were ignorant to details about ALW teams and schedules – due to a lack of promotion to spectators who attended international matches.

With the Women’s Asian Cup also to be played in Australia in two years’ time, the same mistakes cannot be made and capitalising on these home tournaments is paramount.

The 2026 Women’s Asian Cup is set to be an important part of the PFA’s proposed professional relaunch of the A-League women’s competition, using the major tournament to enhance the leagues visibility.

Alongside this, the report claims that an improvement of the ALW’s match presentation is needed – from consistent match day experiences, to appropriate venues for games and better broadcast standards.

All of these factors should, alongside overall improvements to club environments, lead to an attractive product that may eventually reap commercial rewards in the future.

The question is however, will the next step of initial investment towards a professional full-time A-League Women’s competition be taken?

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