'Couldn't pick a worse time': A-League could be left in lurch amid tough market conditions

Broadcast rights experts have warned now is the worst imaginable time for any sport to search for a new TV partner as the A-League braces for the increasing possibility of life without Fox Sports.

As revealed by the Herald, football's powerbrokers are preparing back-up plans in the event Fox pulls out of its $57 million a year deal to cover the A-League, which still has three seasons to run.

The future of the A-League's long association with Fox Sports appears to be in peril.Credit: Getty

But the financial crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic has also impacted media companies, dramatically reducing an already declining capacity to spend big on rights fees and creating uncertain investment conditions, according to Global Media & Sports director Colin Smith.

"You couldn't pick a worse time," Smith told the Herald. "The world has been turned on its head and the business of sport is going to be affected, probably more than any other. This will be a reset."

Another senior media industry figure, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of talks related to football, said every rights buyer in the world would be approaching new investments with an abundance of caution.

Optus Sport is seen as a potential broadcaster for the A-League but the telco has never expressed interest in domestic rights - at least not publicly.

"The reality is everybody is going to be extremely cautious going forward because nothing is being played at the moment and nobody actually has any idea when stuff will come back," the source said.

"Sports bodies the world over have not cottoned on to the fact that the world has fundamentally and structurally changed, and it's not going to be the same."

Fox Sports has not yet revealed its intentions regarding the A-League but could use the COVID-19 outbreak as an opportunity to renegotiate the current contract at a much lower price, or to pull out of the agreement entirely.

"The last deal was done on the basis of how much the league needed, not what the league was worth to Foxtel," Smith said. "In other words, Foxtel did the deal accepting there was going to be a loss, but with the growth of what they foresaw and what was promised to them, that it would deliver.

"In fact the reverse has happened - they've gone further backwards in attendances and television audiences, therefore the value of the A-League as a driver of subscribers is minimal ... they are in dire trouble."

A-League clubs and Football Federation Australia are preparing for a future without Fox and have accelerated contingency planning that would have otherwise occurred over the next 12 months.

One company that had emerged as a potential saviour is already tightening its belt in the new environment. Despite showing early interest in the A-League rights, London-based streaming platform DAZN has largely shelved plans to enter the Australian market, according to multiple sources, with the mass stoppage of sports around the world directly affecting its subscription base.

Sources close to Optus Sport would not engage on "speculation" regarding the A-League, but the telco has never previously shown interest in broadcasting domestic football. The Optus chief executive officer is Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, a former board member of FFA who resigned in protest late last year.

Smith said the A-League should actively pursue a tie-up with Optus to align the local game with "premium football" like the English Premier League, which was previously shown on Fox until mid-2015. All other reforms should also now be put on the table, he said, including a possible shift to a winter timetable, which he flagged earlier this year.

Smith also recommended the A-League pick up any future tab for production rights, which he estimated at approximately $80,000 a game, and then on-sell a finished product to broadcasters - a move that sports including basketball, netball and tennis have already made.

"What they need to do is then have a real multi-medium approach, so they could sell global rights to an Amazon or social media [company], not just in Australia," Smith said. "Then you could have a free-to-air television partner with a revenue-sharing model. That's a real opportunity, but you need financial muscle to be able to hold that, because the [broadcast distributions] to the clubs will be significantly less as you rebuild it."