The English top-flight, Premier League launched the media rights for the upcoming cycle of 2022-23 to 2024-25 for Australia last weekend. The deadline to bid for the first round is set for November 15.
After agreeing on a four-season deal with China which starts from this season, this is the first tender of the League’s sale in the Asia-Pacific region for the new cycle. Optus are the present right-holders in Australia in a deal with Premier League that lasts up until 2022.
Along with the launch of the tender to acquire media rights for the Premier League, the bidder from Australia can make offers for three-year or six-year long term deals. Bidders who are willing to offer six-year terms are expected to be offered a significant bump in the rights fee in the latter half of the deal.
The six-year long term deals have been agreed upon by other bidders in Europe which runs from 2022-23 to 2027-28. Match TV from Russia has bagged the media rights followed by, Nordic Entertainment Group in Nordics, the Netherlands, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and Telekom Srbija have bagged the rights in the Balkans.
Optus, however, is expected to make a bid to renew its rights in Australia. Though it is set to face stiff competition from Network Ten and Nine Entertainment who are likely to make the bid to attain rights for the Premier League in the region. Ten Network has acquired TV rights for the domestic A-League and Australia National teams. While Nine has acquired rights to stream UEFA club competitions in June.
Pay-television and Foxtel do not seem like a major contender for the Premier League rights, although a surprise bid by the market-leading sports media business can not be ruled out. While other players like beIN and Amazon are likely to stray away from making an attempt to launch a bid.