Australia's commercial broadcaster, Nine Network, has significantly expanded its soccer coverage. The network has acquired the rights to Germany's top knockout football competition, DFB-Pokal, and England’s Premier League Summer Series pre-season tournament. This move is part of Nine's strategy to establish itself as the "home of soccer" in Australia.
The addition of these competitions comes after Nine recently bolstered its portfolio of football rights. The live coverage of the Premier League’s Summer Series began over the weekend (July 26) with a match between Bournemouth and Everton that ended in a 3-0 victory for Bournemouth.
The six pre-season matches will be broadcast via Nine’s streaming platform Stan Sport as the Premier League clubs gear up for their 2025-26 campaign. In addition to this, Stan Sport will also stream live matches from DFB-Pokal for the same season.
Growing portfolio
Until earlier this month, Nine held exclusive rights only to all European soccer’s UEFA club competitions, includingthe top-tier Champions League, second-tier Europa League, third-tier Conference League, and UEFA Super Cup.
However, a deal with Optus supercharged its portfolio by adding extensive soccer rights previously held by Optus. This came after Optus decided to divest from its broadcast commitments.
Under the terms of this agreement, Stan Sports assumed responsibility for domestic coverage of England’s top-tier Premier League and FA Community Shield. The deal also facilitated the acquisition of broadcasting rights for Japan’s J-League and South Korea’s K-League. Furthermore, from the upcoming 2025-26 season onwards, coverage will extend to include North America's National Women's Soccer League. Stan Sports also gained rights to show European soccer's recently concluded UEFA Women's European Championships won by England.
Major sea change
Optus had exclusively held Premier League rights in Australia since 2016, with its latest six-season contract running through the 2027-28 campaign. The acquisition of these rights by Nine marks a significant shift in the Australian broadcasting landscape.
GlobalData senior media analyst Costanza Barrai commented on Nine’s Optus deal, stating that it marked “a major sea change for Nine." She added that the network is now seemingly pushing its Stan Sport OTT service as a domestic competitor against multinational services such as Prime Video and Netflix. The new soccer rights add to Stan Sports' other sports rights in Australia, which include rugby union’s English Premiership, southern hemisphere Rugby Championship and SVNS, tennis’ Davis Cup, motor racing’s Formula E, World Athletics Championships, PFL mixed martial arts action among others.
This expansion of soccer coverage by Nine Network is set to significantly enhance its reputation among sports fans and sports betting fans alike. It will be interesting to see how this move impacts the competitive dynamics of sports broadcasting in Australia.
