FIFA president Gianni Infantino delivering the news Australia and New Zealand would co-host the 2023 Women’s World Cup. He will soon help decide how it’s shown on television in Australia.Credit:Getty
Should it be successful,the move would solidify its position as a sports streaming player and would complement the rights it has secured to theswimming trials for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. But it will likely be up against most major commercial networks - such as SBS,Seven West Media,Network Ten,Nine Entertainment Co and Foxtel - to secure the rights.
The Women’s World Cup has become a significant battleground for streaming companies amid broader industry concerns about market saturation,and analyst speculation that subscriber growth achieved by many services during the pandemic may be at risk. For local television networks,live World Cup matches will be an opportunity to secure large amounts of advertising.
At a public event last week,Amazon’s head of international production James Farrell described the US tech giant’s investment in Australian content as one of its biggest in the world.
“We actually haven’t ranked country by country... but we spend more money just based on where the good ideas coming out of. There aren’t that many countries around the world that would be more than[Australia],” he said.
Amazon Studios global head Jennifer Salke said the streaming giant’s local expansion was aggressive.
“Australia has been such a great hub of creativity,” she says. “It’s also pretty aggressive as far as moving forward quickly into 14 Australian original productions and 2500 jobs across Australia since 2019. It’s an aggressive version of our expansion playbook it stands up there with some of the bigger investments.”
ViacomCBS’ Network Ten and streaming service Paramount+ remain in advanced talks about securing the broadcast rights to A-League and W-League. Separate sources said that deal could be signed this week and would mark the first local sports acquisition for Paramount+,which launches locally in August.