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A new Network Ten broadcast deal to screen national team games is good news for the code and good news for fans – no matter what some columnists would have you believe.
We’ve been waiting for an avalanche of riches to rain down on football in Australia for the past 20 years.
It’s never happened – and it never will – which makes the new five-year agreement Football Australia just signed with Ten and Paramount+ a sensible piece of business for both parties.
Ten and its streaming service Paramount+ have been broadcasting both the A-Leagues and national team games since 2021.
And while there’s still room for improvement, it’s a decent outcome for fans to keep both domestic and international football in one place.
That’s not an insignificant result in this fragmented age of streaming, with football fans across Australia now needing multiple subscriptions to watch a variety of leagues from around the world.
That won’t stop the perpetually online Australian football supporter base from posting their next dozen or so reddit threads about how they’d like to see football end up on Optus Sport or Kayo or Stan or whatever other streaming service.
But there’s a self-evident reason none of these services currently screen Australian football.
Because they don’t want to.
Optus Sport don’t produce any of the leagues they show – they simply re-broadcast them – Kayo’s parent company Foxtel is losing money hand over fist, while Stan have thrown their lot in with rugby and tennis, even if their UEFA Champions League broadcasts cater to a select few.
It’s a point that was rammed home by the fact there were no other serious bidders for the broadcast rights to Socceroos and Matildas games.
Kusini Yengi of Australia celebrates a goal (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
That’s despite the fact that two major tournaments – the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup in Australia, and the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Saudi Arabia – will take place within the five-year broadcast window.
The one exception is the upcoming 2026 World Cup in North America, with FIFA renewing the deal late last year for SBS to broadcast the multi-country finals.
Australian broadcasters – it must be said – have been typically slow to recognise the value of football rights, with Optus Sport securing the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup rights for a song in the face of lack of interest.
They eventually had to share 15 games with Channel Seven – in part because Matildas games were belatedly added to the anti-siphoning list.
But despite the new broadcast deal offering some stability at a time when it’s sorely needed – even if Football Australia were reluctant to divulge the actual financial details – it hasn’t pleased everyone.
Some Matildas fans were disappointed that certain national team games will be locked behind a paywall on Paramount+.
But here’s the rub. If we want to raise standards and increase the level of professionalism in women’s football, then someone needs to pay for it.
Too many fans seem to view Paramount+ as some kind of charity service rather than a content provider that uses football to attract subscribers.
The Matildas celebrate a goal against Uzbekistan. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
They’ve got a couple of full-time commentators in Simon Hill and Robbie Thomson to account for, along with Ten’s various other TV personalities.
Robbie Slater was still nonplussed by the deal, with the former Socceroo slamming Football Australia in a column for CODE Sports entitled: ‘Sick to my stomach’: Why TV deal is a disaster for football.
The column was, somewhat ironically, behind a paywall – which presumably meant few football fans actually read it.
But Slater has been a persistent critic of the Ten broadcasts ever since his former employer Fox Sports chose to abandon the A-Leagues and ostensibly left him out of a job.
Bulldog is as entitled to his opinion as we are to ours.
But a new broadcast deal with Network Ten and Paramount+ can only been seen as a good thing for a code crying out for some stability.
Here’s hoping those who tune into Thursday night’s sold-out World Cup qualifier against Bahrain on the Gold Coast agree.