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FOX Sports signs new broadcast deal with Netball Australia

FOX Sports will become the new home of netball as part of a new broadcast agreement with Netball Australia.

2013-05-01_1308FOX Sports will become the new home of netball as part of a new broadcast agreement with Netball Australia.

This will see all ANZ Championship games, including finals, and Australian Diamonds international Tests broadcast live and in high definition airing on FOX Sports.

As part of the deal, Foxtel announces a new grassroots initiative, similar to the one it has established with Football Federation Australia.

A Foxtel All-Star Program will be offered free to 500 young netball players around Australia, with five one-day clinics in major centres including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

Richard Freudenstein, Foxtel Chief Executive, said: “We are excited to announce this new program with our partners at Netball Australia to encourage more girls to play netball and lead a healthy and active lifestyle, while inspiring the next generation of netball stars. This program aligns nicely with what we are doing with football in Australia and means that Foxtel will now support grassroots activity in two of the nation’s most popular participatory sports.”

Potential participants will be asked to share stories of their passion for netball, and will then be selected to join these clinics that will include all aspects of netball training and coaching.

A further component of the initiative is the ‘Diamonds for Dreams’ program whereby Foxtel will contribute funds to support netball clubs through Netball Australia’s One Netball Program. This contribution will be linked to the number of goals scored by the Australian Netball Diamonds during their international fixtures.

“Australian women and girls love netball, so I am delighted that, with FOX Sports, we can now ensure that they have the opportunity to view all of the games of the ANZ Championship live. Our support for grass roots participation will ensure that the quality of netball all across Australia remains strong,” Mr Freudenstein said.

Netball Australia Chief Executive, Kate Palmer, said: “This announcement is another significant milestone in growing our sport’s future in Australia. Netball Australia, in conjunction with Foxtel, can continue to provide a safe and inclusive environment to more grassroots netballers around the country as we look to strengthen our position as Australia’s premier female participation sport.”

Australian Diamonds defender Bianca Chatfield said: “Since I first picked up a netball, this sport has taught me a lot of life’s most fundamental skills including team work, leadership and the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. That’s why it’s so important that as many girls as possible are given the chance to play netball as the benefits go well beyond just playing a game.”

12 Responses

  1. Basketball Australia have the best media rights deal out of all of the non-mainstream sports in australia. The current deal is for 5 years already had three years leaves just two more seasons on this deal. Ten Network is the FTA rights holder, currently showing 2 games, a Friday Night game on a two hour delay in some markets more because of day light saving, and 1 Sunday Arvo game Live into eastern states. Secondly the NBL/BA bought back the online rights from Ten and created NBL.tv in conjunction with Perform Media, this allowed people to subscribe for a season and watch Live NBL games. THe rest of the matches were covered by Perform Media. Netball has a similar deal for International viewers but not local viewer which in my opinion is total crap. Its alot better paying 20 or in NBL’s case 60 dollars for a season pass then 60 dollars per month to Foxtel in which you get more but more of what you dont want. The season passes to NBL and similar to NBA league pass is the way of the future. People wont mind paying a season pass but dont want to be ripped of by Foxtel and get a bunch of stuff they dont want. I hope Netball Australia buy back the online rights away from Telstra/Foxtel and allow australians to watch Live netball via Perform Media’s online platform, that way the game can grow and the NBN will further increase this. If the NBL does go back to Foxtel then i hope BA dont sell them the online rights if the aim is growing the game. Since the restructure and then a FTA deal the NBL has experienced significant and steady growth.

  2. @CraigW
    One/Ten is getting about 3 times as much ratings than what Fox Sports got. I am sure Basketball Australia will try and keep it on FTA to help make the game grow.

  3. “grass-roots imitative” are sweetners for a deals with Netball Australia and the FFA that also have promotional value to Foxtel.

    If Foxtel wants to pay for part of the deal out of its promotional budget instead of content that is fine.

  4. This move can only ensure that Less people get to see Netball on TV. Last year it was great to be able to see all five matches each week on 10/One, and I thought it was no big deal that they weren’t always live. I don’t have Foxtel and as much as I love watching Netball I can’t justify getting Foxtel for one thing. One match a week on my very unreliable SBS (I live in a hilly area) is causing me great distress.

  5. I reckon only a matter of time before NBL goes back to Foxtel. Basketball Australia would be thinking they might benefit from a similar grass roots program overhaul. Andrew Gaze is already on Fox and has an interest in BA activities, so it seems a monty to me. No reason as far as I can tell why Fox couldn’t on sell replays to One/Ten (since One didn’t really strictly go Live all the time anyway) to get FTA coverage.

  6. i hope this new deal for Foxtel doesn’t ruin the deal SBS has. Sure, it may not be getting huge ratings numbers, but at least it’s shown on FTA (and on it’s digital channel).

  7. This does ignore that Netball Australia has signed as two year deal with SBS for live coverage of one ANZ game/week, highlights of the rest of the ANZ and coverage of the Australian and NZ series this year.

    And that the FFA has done a deal for SBS to show Socceroo World Cup qualifiers on a 1 hour delay (which seems to have been amended to 30 minutes for the last one) and live broadcasts of the the Friday night A-League games plus 1 hour delayed broadcast of the finals.

    Both of which mean that Foxtel is no-longer the exclusive rights holder or “home” for the sports, more people will be watching games on SBS than Foxtel and their rights are worth much less.

    The sporting bodies have to balance what the exclusive rights from Foxtel would generate in cash to fund the sports vs increasing exposure and growing support for the sports in the community using FTA.

    I think these are fairly sensible deals but while they still allow Foxtel plenty of content they are worse than the deals Foxtel had before. Something Foxtel’s spin neglects to mention.

  8. David does this new deal have an impact on the deal which was struck before this years ANZ Champioship. Also does it include IPTV rights aswell? I know that Overseas viewers in England and US can watch via a online platform powered by Perform Media but we and NZ fans cant because aparently FOXtel and SKY own the IPTV rights. Personally this is bad for Netball how will they acutally grow, good news for FOXtel but i think realistically Netball had little choice.

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