Sporting codes want long-term broadcast deals to ensure certainty: Foxtel

Foxtel executive Rebecca McCloy said sporting codes are increasingly becoming focused on locking in long-term broadcasting partnerships.

Sporting codes are seeking long-term partnerships with broadcasters to provide certainty during the tougher economic climate, according to senior Foxtel executive Rebecca McCloy.

Ms McCloy, who is the Foxtel Group’s executive director of commercial (sport), said signing lengthy deals had become more commonplace in recent years.

“As the market becomes more uncertain they need more certainty in their partnerships and they want long-term partners,” she said.

“There’s lots of entrants that come in and out of the market and there’s so much nervousness around a short-term strategy.

“We’ve got partnerships that run forward for a decade – it gives a lot of certainty and assurance to the sports partnerships.”

Foxtel has signed 175 deals with 120 different sports partners and agents over the past 12 months. Foxtel and Seven West Media signed a historic $4.5bn AFL deal in 2022 to secure sports rights for the code for seven years from 2025 to 2031.

Foxtel Group’s executive director commercial (sport) Rebecca McCloy.

In 2020, Foxtel and Nine signed a major deal with the NRL, running from 2022 through to the end of the 2027 season. Foxtel and Seven also hold the sports rights to domestic cricket until 2031.

“When you want to grow your sport from a consumer and sport point of view, you want to be attached to the other bigger sports, you’ve got to be in that ecosystem,” Ms McCloy said.

“If you’ve got the AFL, the NRL, the cricket, you’re trying to grow your sport, you want to be in that ecosystem because that’s where the customers are going.”

News Corporation’s latest ­results released in February showed Foxtel has 4.365 million subscribers and 66 per cent of these are streaming subscribers.

Ms McCloy said for a long time many sports deals had run for much shorter periods, typically three years. This week, she will attend SportNXT – Shaping the Future of Sport conference in Melbourne, appearing on a panel to discuss the media’s ever-shifting landscape. Foxtel is 65 per cent owned by News Corp, publisher of The Australian.