The Men’s Ashes Series is fast approaching with the first Test Match between Australia v England starting on the 23rd of November at Brisbane’s GABBA ground. While viewers in Australia will enjoy LIVE and FREE coverage on Channel Nine (and streaming coverage via Cricket Australia’s paid live pass option), cricket fans in Japan (including many […]

In August the NRL awarded the Nine Network exclusive broadcast rights to 4 weekly NRL Premiership Games from 2018. At the time, the now former NRL CEO Dave Smith said “…there will be more live and free Rugby League on television – and that is what the fans want.” This agreement with Nine blindsided incumbent NRL media partners […]

The AFL has this evening announced a record $2.508 billion, six-year broadcast rights deal with News Corp Australia, Seven West Media and Telstra. Heavy-hitters were out in force at the press conference announcing the new deal with AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan joined by Rupert Murdoch, Robert Thomson and Kerry Stokes, amongst others. The new deal, which […]

The Fairfax Radio Network (FRN) has secured rights to broadcast cricket for the next five years. The FRN which includes Melbourne’s 3AW, Sydney’s 2UE, Brisbane’s 4BC and Perth’s 6PR will have live ball-by-ball coverage of: the Commonwealth Bank Boxing Day; the Commonwealth Bank Sydney Test; the Carlton Mid One Day International Series; the KFC T20 International […]

Two stories caught my interest in last week’s national papers, The Australian and The Australian Financial Review. The stories both concerned the ongoing negotiations for V8 Supercars’ new media rights deal, which will commence next year. The Australian’s article focused on Ten’s play for the rights, which if successful would see the network return to […]

Optus’ TV Now service was held earlier this month by the Federal Court not to infringe the AFL or NRL’s copyright in their match broadcasts. Following the Court’s decision the Australian Football League’s Chief Executive Andrew Demetriou, in a wide-ranging interview with the Herald Sun made a number of comments surrounding the case and Optus’ conduct. The comments […]

The Optus TV Now service has been given the stamp of approval by the Federal Court of Australia today. The service, according to Optus, allows a user to record and watch later free-to-air TV shows on a user’s mobile or PC. It allows an Optus customer the freedom to record TV shows anytime, anywhere to play […]

This week the Gillard Government announced that the Department of Foreign Affairs’ international television network, the Australia Network will now become a permanent feature of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s duties as the national broadcaster, rather than have the network put out to commercial tender. This announcement comes after the Government scrapped that tender process to run […]

  Reports in the Australian and the Australian Financial Review last week confirmed the government is failing to act on important regulatory issues affecting Australian television broadcasters. The first is the delay to pass the Anti-siphoning reforms that were first announced in December last year and second the delay to award the new Australia Network contract. Since this […]

In the lead up to the announcement of the new 2012-2016 television rights deal for the AFL, we are pleased to publish for the first time an original FrostGlobal article from 2006 examining the history and state of AFL broadcasting rights following the announcement of the 2007-2011 rights deal.