A$2.5 billion deal: After Covid lull, sports rights go crazy again

A new, A$2.5 billion deal for AFL broadcasting rights could be announced today. Photo / Getty Images

For a moment there, it looked like the pandemic had broken the cycle of broadcasters, and streamers, paying ever-dizzier sums for sports rights.

In the UK, after years of nosebleed increases, Premier League rights were renewed at the same rate - and indeed broadcasters even clawed some money back. Sky did the same here, renegotiating for a (temporarily) smaller sum as the coronavirus decimated the All Blacks and Super Rugby calendars.

But a clutch of new deals show that sports fever is back - and hotter than ever. Spark (which reports its full-year result on Wednesday) and Sky (which will do the same on Thursday) will be watching closely. And more so as the pair tussle over rights to the next Rugby World Cup, and Sky weighs a deal with World Rugby over its Rugby Pass service.

Across the Tasman, a new AFL deal could be announced as soon as today that is tipped to see Seven West Media and Foxtel pay A$2.5 billion ($2.7b), or A$500 million per season, for five years' rights.

The AFR reports that the AFL is hoping a rival bid from Network 10, partnered with streaming service Paramount+, could even push rights to $600m per season.

And in the US, it was reported over the weekend that CBS and Paramount+ owner Paramount Global had agreed a six-year deal for Uefa rights (that is broadcasting and streaming European Champions League games to US viewers), in a package worth a total US$1.5 billion, which breaks down to US$250m per season.

That's a dramatic increase on the U$100m per season previously paid by Paramount and Univision.

And in June, Apple inked a deal to stream every US Major League Soccer (MLS) game for 10 years from 2023 a total US$2.5b or US$250 million per season or a total

Again, that was a thumping increase on the US$90m per season paid by incumbents, Fox, Spanish-language channel Univision and the majority Disney-owned ESPN (whose ESPN+ had streaming rights).

The same month, Paramount+ and India's Reliance paid a record US$3.05b for Indian Premier League streaming rights for five years. Disney's Star secured IPL broadcast rights for the same period for US$3.02b for a total US$6.07b deal, or more than twice the US$2.5b paid for the previous five years' rights to the T20 competition.

The boom times are back for sports bodies. Fans, who will be picking up the tab, won't necessarily be so impressed.

Sky, which had recently signed a new NRL deal and stolen English Premier League rights from Spark, blamed "rights inflation" as it increased the price of its sports channels in May.