Next TV deal discussion 2028 -

[Iamback]

Nine made the footy show work for years with blockbuster ratings and almost no footage.

Yes but how did it go once streaming became big?
100% Footy doesn't rate well, generally RL panel shows struggle even with footage to disect.

I hope it goes well but sadly RL panel shows haven't in the past

 

[ayatollah_murdoch]

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Disney eyes more Australian sport, turns into a Foxtel competitor
Zoe Samios and Sam Buckingham-Jones
Updated Mar 11, 2025 – 9.16am,
first published at 9.15am

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Disney is considering spending more money on domestic sports rights as it prepares to launch ESPN on its streaming app in direct competition to Foxtel, the subscription broadcaster being acquired by Dazn.

From March 26, the NBA, Major League Baseball, NHL and UFC Fight Night will appear on Disney+, which has an estimated 3.1 million subscribers in Australia. It will not cost existing users more, and Australia will be the first English-language market outside the US to add ESPN.


The Walt Disney Company Australia and New Zealand’s Kylie Watson-Wheeler. Eamon Gallagher

In an interview with The Australian Financial Review, Kylie Watson-Wheeler, The Walt Disney Company’s managing director of Australia and New Zealand, said the company had spent three decades building US sports up in the domestic market and had invested in Australian basketball too.

“ESPN has a proven track record of investing in Australian sport, including through our multi-year commitment to the NBL. We are the unrivalled destination for basketball in the region,” Watson-Wheeler said. “We are open to investing more into Australian sport where it makes sense.”

Sport is a “natural evolution” for the Disney+ app, which arrived in Australia six years ago, she said. While it is the third-biggest streaming service behind Netflix, with 6.2 million subscribers, and Amazon Prime Video, which has 4.8 million, Disney+ wants to grow its young, male subscriber base, Watson-Wheeler said. It recently made a pitch to AFL viewers.


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“ESPN is a much-loved brand and its content is highly valued and sought after, particularly by younger males and those aged 18 to 44,” she said. “Attracting this demographic to Disney+ is incremental for us.”

Disney’s mooted appetite for more domestic sports comes days after the chief executive of the NRL, Andrew Abdo, described global streaming services as “apex predators” with free-to-air and pay TV in the sports sector.

Negotiations for the rights for the NRL after 2027 are expected to kick off within months, and there is speculation streaming services could experiment with big tent pole events such as the annual State of Origin series.

“All of a sudden, those global streamers are coming in as a third predator, apex predator. In a good way because they want to have an opportunity to get this moment where everyone’s watching live, whether it’s grand finals or State of Origins,” Abdo told the Financial Review Business Summit.

ESPN, which has been in Australia for 30 years, will remain on Foxtel and Kayo, as well as Telstra’s Fetch TV, after its launch on Disney+.

“We greatly value our longstanding and continued relationships with our distribution partners,” Watson-Wheeler said. “They serve unique and important audiences.”

ESPN’s arrival on Disney+ adds a cashed up competitor to Foxtel, which is being sold by News Corporation and Telstra to Dazn, a global sport streaming platform backed by billionaire businessman Len Blavatnik and the Saudi Arabian government’s sovereign wealth fund.

And there is an audience, Watson-Wheeler said. This year’s Super Bowl reached more than 1.1 million people in Australia and showed US sports are “so far from a niche in Australia”.

“An Aussie athlete won the Super Bowl. There are 14 Aussies in the NBA. January 2025 was the Australian edition of ESPN.com’s best January in the last five years,” she said, with 2.1 million unique visitors.

Disney is expected to follow Netflix, Amazon and Binge and launch a cheaper tier in Australia that is subsidised by advertisements, but Watson-Wheeler said that won’t be imminent. But there will be ads on ESPN’s coverage.

 

[Wb1234]

The more content Foxtel loses the more desperate they will be to keep what’s left

With hbo leaving there’s going to be hardly anything decent left other than nrl

And espn taking the rest of the good stuff

 

[Perth Red]

If ESPN is on Kayo and Disney+ whats the motivation to subscribe to Disney+ for sports fans?

 

[Wb1234]

If ESPN is on Kayo and Disney+ whats the motivation to subscribe to Disney+ for sports fans?

Cause they will be exclusive to Disney from now on ?

 

[Perth Red]

Cause they will be exclusive to Disney from now on ?

'ESPN, which has been in Australia for 30 years, will remain on Foxtel and Kayo, as well as Telstra’s Fetch TV, after its launch on Disney+.'

 

[Wb1234]

'ESPN, which has been in Australia for 30 years, will remain on Foxtel and Kayo, as well as Telstra’s Fetch TV, after its launch on Disney+.'

Thought it was like hbo

Once that goes I probably downgrade

 

[Perth Red]

Thought it was like hbo

Once that goes I probably downgrade

I presume if they ever went for the NRL or AFL rights they would pull it from Fox/Kayo and it'd be exclusive on disney+. Theres really not enough new content on disney+ at moment to justify a 12 month subscription.

 

[colly]

Sports streaming wars erupt as Disney+ gets serious

The media giant is adding major sporting chops to its streaming platform Disney+ in a move that could reshape the future of rights negotiations in Australia.

www.smh.com.au

This must have been missed 11th Feb, on about the same topic.
This could hit over $550m per year ( cash) if played right.

Media giant Disney is entering the sports streaming market in Australia, moving its existing coverage of the top American sports leagues, including the NBA and NFL, to its streaming service Disney+.

In a bid to capitalise on the growing popularity of the world’s most popular sports leagues, Disney will add ESPN to Disney+ at no extra cost, dealing a blow to Foxtel’s one-stop sports shop Kayo.

ESPN is one of the biggest sports broadcasters globally, and the move to take the platform in-house signals an intent to expand its live sports offering in Australia.
Disney+ is currently the third-largest streaming platform in Australia, and streaming live sports is becoming the next major battleground for it and the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, threatening the once-dominant position Foxtel and free-to-air networks had in Australia.

By adding the infrastructure and capability to stream sporting events live on its app, ESPN is positioned to actively take part in future sports rights negotiations, a source familiar with the plans but not authorised to speak publicly told this masthead.
While there is no set date for the introduction of ESPN to Disney+, a spokesperson said it will be in the “coming months”.

While the major American leagues such as the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB, alongside college sports and the popular UFC, which hosted an event in Sydney this weekend, will be available at no extra cost, Disney has left the door open for Foxtel to renew its current long-standing ESPN licence deal.

Yet with Foxtel raising the cost of a Premium Kayo subscription to $40 per month in January, a Disney+ subscription comes at a significantly lower price point of $13.99 or $17.99. However, a price hike at Disney+ is likely at some point this year, this masthead was told.

Bringing live sports together with the existing Disney+ library of movie franchises such as Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, alongside new award-winning programs Shogun, The Bear and others, is an “innovative game changer”, the company’s local boss Kylie Watson-Wheeler said.

Last week, the NFL announced a regular season game will be hosted at the MCG in Melbourne in 2026, while an NBA exhibition match will also be held later this year, highlighting the growing popularity of these sports in the Australian market.
Disney+ has an estimated 3.1 million paying subscribers in Australia, per research firm Telsyte, around double that of Kayo. Amazon Prime Video, so far the biggest entrant into live sports, has around 4.8 million. Netflix, which has begun moving into event-based live sports broadcasting, has approximately 6.2 million subscribers in Australia.
Unlike other streamers moving into the sports game, Disney, through ESPN, has year-round sports coverage, 24 hours a day, the company’s chief executive Bob Iger told investors last week.

News Corp agreed to a sale of Foxtel to sports streamer DAZN in December. The sale is expected to be completed before the end of the financial year, taking the pay TV business, alongside streaming services Kayo and Binge, out of the hands of the Murdoch family.


DAZN has flagged its intention to leave the Foxtel business untouched for now. The UK-based streamer wants to turn its direct-to-consumer app into the Netflix or Spotify of sports but will need to spend significantly to get there.
While AFL and NRL remain the main game for Foxtel, the US codes, particularly the NBA and NFL, have proven particularly important during the winter football codes’ off-seasons.
Foxtel shares the rights to broadcast the NRL with Nine, the owner of this masthead, which holds the free-to-air component. The league is preparing to begin negotiations for its next contract from 2027. Both will face a fight to renew their current deals, with a bidding war expected to include global streamers.

While News Corp did not report Foxtel subscriber figures in the final quarter of 2024 due to the sale process being under way, it lost 16 per cent of its subscribers in the final quarter of 2023, after the AFL and NRL seasons ended.
Foxtel was approached for comment.

 

[Perth Red]

It'll be interesting to see how any streamer could make a profit on outlaying $400mill+ a year for NRL (+production costs). Thats what it would be if Wb $550mill cash+ prediction is to be realised.
How many new subscribers at $20-30 a month does that need to make a positive ROI?

 

[Mother Nature's Son]

It'll be interesting to see how any streamer could make a profit on outlaying $400mill+ a year for NRL (+production costs). Thats what it would be if Wb $550mill cash+ prediction is to be realised.
How many new subscribers at $20-30 a month does that need to make a positive ROI?

It`s just not subscribers you know, they`ll have a truck load of companies paying big dollars to be associated with their coverage. And I dare say Horatio, they will have other ways that you haven`t dreamt to monetise their investment in Rugby League.

 

[Wb1234]

It'll be interesting to see how any streamer could make a profit on outlaying $400mill+ a year for NRL (+production costs). Thats what it would be if Wb $550mill cash+ prediction is to be realised.
How many new subscribers at $20-30 a month does that need to make a positive ROI?

Around one million gives you 360 million at 30 per month (plus advertising less production costs)

Foxtel has probably 2.5 to 3 million subscribers who are signed by directly or indirectly for nrl (total subscribers is 4.7 million)

You also have the ability to upsell other content over just the sports program

Bit early for Disney imo I’m relying on Stan and maybe paramount but not likely serious bid

The reality is we all may have to get used to channel nine commentary for all the games lol

Dazn may also bid for the nz games to go with Australia which would help the nz deal

 

[The_Wookie]

Foxtel has probably 2.5 to 3 million subscribers who are signed by directly or indirectly for nrl (total subscribers is 4.7 million)

Not likely.you know that like half the subs arent for sport at all right? like Binge and Kayo are neck and neck for subs. And not all sports subs are NRL.

As of September, theres in total 2.933m subscribers that COULD be subscribed for sport if every single subscriber was for sport. (December didnt give us data due to the sale removing this)

 

[Iamback]

It'll be interesting to see how any streamer could make a profit on outlaying $400mill+ a year for NRL (+production costs). Thats what it would be if Wb $550mill cash+ prediction is to be realised.
How many new subscribers at $20-30 a month does that need to make a positive ROI?

ESPN+ made $66m profit but has 24m US subscribers but has huge backing to fund buying the rights

 

[Iamback]

I presume if they ever went for the NRL or AFL rights they would pull it from Fox/Kayo and it'd be exclusive on disney+. Theres really not enough new content on disney+ at moment to justify a 12 month subscription.

I am an NHL fan over any sport. To stream the coverage of any game to log on you need a Foxtel or Fetch customer number.

They will probably do similar have content only for Disney+