TV Rights

[RPCB]

There are two W-League games and 2 A-League games on Friday night simultaneously at Leichardt / CommBank.

Assume the time slots for those will be 6pm W-League and 8pm A League.


Don't think there will be a clear out of the stauim, next fixture will follow right away. There wouldn't be time for the Friday night fixtures.

I didn’t see times there, so didn’t know they are all confirmed to be on the Friday night. That’s a bit trickier then, not sure what the workaround will be.

 

[SM]

It's absolutely harder in Aus. Look at A League crowds. Even when it's relatively local, most won't travel. Hell, even in the AFL, most won't travel. Away supporters are normally based in that city, rather than a whole lot of supporters traveling interstate.

You're absolutely right on the smart fixturing. They could do something awesome with it. Have it as essentially a rivalry round. As many local derbies as possible. Raise funds for charities etc.

Yeah let me re-phrase, because it's harder, no one does it, so it's 'easier' to fixture in that sense. In England people actually travel, which makes it bloody tough for them to get to.

 

[BigVic]

SBS remains home of the FIFA World Cup™, secures exclusive FIFA World Cup 2026™ rights

SBS will remain the home of the World Game - with the national broadcaster today confirming it has secured the exclusive rights to the FIFA World Cup 2026™.

www.sbs.com.au

Some good news. SBS will be the home of the 2026 FIFA World Cup airing all 104 matches on SBS and SBS VICELAND. The station outbid Optus Sport (who aired the recent WWC) and 10/P+ in the FIFA World Cup rights. The commercial networks 7 and 9 didn't put in a bid.

It continues a tradition which dates back to 1990 and ensured the World Cup remains free for Australian viewers.

Once again, 10 misses out on another major sporting event.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

SBS remains home of the FIFA World Cup™, secures exclusive FIFA World Cup 2026™ rights

SBS will remain the home of the World Game - with the national broadcaster today confirming it has secured the exclusive rights to the FIFA World Cup 2026™.

www.sbs.com.au

Some good news. SBS will be the home of the 2026 FIFA World Cup airing all 104 matches on SBS and SBS VICELAND. The station outbid Optus Sport, Nine/Stan and 10/P+ in the FIFA World Cup rights.

It continued a tradition which dates back to 1990 and ensured the World Cup remains free for Australian viewers.

Bloody hell 104 games instead of 64 means there will be a lot of double up games, or more likely rather than the tournament running over 5 weekends, it will have to stretch out to 7 or 8 weekends.

The 2026 jingle will be played a lot more in and out of commercial breaks that the catchy one SBS had from Qatar.

 

[BigVic]

SBS will have to use two channels. Viceland was used for overflow matches during the group stage last year

 

[Zidane98]

SBS remains home of the FIFA World Cup™, secures exclusive FIFA World Cup 2026™ rights

SBS will remain the home of the World Game - with the national broadcaster today confirming it has secured the exclusive rights to the FIFA World Cup 2026™.

www.sbs.com.au

Some good news. SBS will be the home of the 2026 FIFA World Cup airing all 104 matches on SBS and SBS VICELAND. The station outbid Optus Sport (who aired the recent WWC) and 10/P+ in the FIFA World Cup rights. The commercial networks 7 and 9 didn't put in a bid.

It continues a tradition which dates back to 1990 and ensured the World Cup remains free for Australian viewers.

Once again, 10 misses out on another major sporting event.

Yes, the FIFA WC must remain on FTA.

 

[BigVic]

I remember 9 secruring the rights to the 2002 World Cup and had to offload games to SBS and Optus Sport stuffing up the 2018 edition

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

SMH today

SBS scores exclusive broadcast rights to 2026 FIFA World Cup

The public broadcaster has secured exclusive rights to broadcast the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, to be hosted across the United States, Mexico and Canada.

www.smh.com.au

A senior network source familiar with the bidding process, not authorised to speak publicly, said the deal is worth $30 million – a larger figure than the two previous tournaments. SBS declined to comment on the cost of acquiring the rights.

The tournament attracted interest from all free-to-air networks and Optus Sport, SBS ultimately emerging the victor.
.....

A 7pm kick-off in Los Angeles would air at midday in Australia’s eastern states, while a 7pm game in New York City would air at 9am.


SMH in August after Women's World Cup

FIFA looks to cash in on Matildas’ success as 2026 men’s rights battle kicks off

The raging success of the Matildas during the Women’s World Cup has boosted interest in the rights for the 2026 men’s tournament.

www.smh.com.au

Australia’s free-to-air networks are expected to battle it out for the rights to the FIFA Men’s World Cup in 2026 following the success of the women’s tournament. FIFA executives in Australia for the blockbuster Women’s World Cup are set to brief the nation’s free-to-air networks this week, a media executive with knowledge of the process but not permitted to speak publicly said. An official process is expected to take place in the coming months.

SBS first gained the rights in 1990. The most recent two tournaments, in Russia and Qatar, were snagged by the broadcaster in 2011 for $20 million each, but it subsequently sublicensed its rights in 2018 to Optus Sport, which infamously botched the broadcast.

With Australians watching the Matildas this year in record numbers, the 2026 World Cup, to be held in Canada, Mexico and the US, is now set to attract bumper interest as Australia’s commercial networks realise the potential audience and advertiser interest in the sport.

So does SBS flog off some games to Optus like it did for 2018 or does it pinch some of their staff and personalities from Optus and Bein sport like they did for Qatar??

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

A 7pm kick-off in Los Angeles would air at midday in Australia’s eastern states, while a 7pm game in New York City would air at 9am.

Had a quick look at Qatar schedule for start times.
16 of 48 group games were played at 10pm mainly due to heat issues, and it was prime time in central Europe time zone at 8pm
8 of 16 knock out games were played at 10pm and
8 at 16 knock out games were played at 6pm, but the final and 3rd place match was at 6pm

The other slots for the 32 group games were 1pm, 4pm, 6pm and 7pm and they were shared equally during the group phase either 7, 8 or 9 games at each of these.

 

[hawkman]

The only places getting afternoon slots would be the indoor stadiums and the Canadian ones due to heat. Possibly Seattle as well

 

[Zidane98]

I remember 9 secruring the rights to the 2002 World Cup and had to offload games to SBS and Optus Sport stuffing up the 2018 edition

9 got 2002 because it was prime time.

Was a huge success commercially despite no Socceroos qualification. The 2002 final got better ratings than the 2002 AFL Grand Final.

 

[acm21]

Sbs are billing to announcement as exclusive. So sounds like they will be showing it all themselves

 

[SM]

Sbs are billing to announcement as exclusive. So sounds like they will be showing it all themselves

They did last time too.

 

[glenferry23]

The only places getting afternoon slots would be the indoor stadiums and the Canadian ones due to heat. Possibly Seattle as well

 

[BigVic]

Most of the stadiums will be renamed due to sponsorship not allowed at World Cup

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

The only places getting afternoon slots would be the indoor stadiums and the Canadian ones due to heat. Possibly Seattle as well

Nah plenty of the 11 US cities will host arvo games. 1pm, and 3pm games are prime time in central European time zone and if the tournament is squeezed into 5 1/2 weeks as this sports travel website suggests, they will have to use all time slots and have a lot of double up games. The website suggests we should see the schedule released sometime in November - re dates and times that cities will host games with teams playing there slotted in, in late 2025. This article is dated 25th October.

2026 FIFA World Cup: How New York/New Jersey Got the Final And What’s Next

Years of work boiled down to a Sunday afternoon in February. After months of delays, FIFA was finally releasing the match schedule for the 2026 World Cup. The culmination of the TV show — “a tough …

www.sportstravelmagazine.com

When will the 2026 FIFA World Cup schedule be announced?​

The schedule will be released by the end of the year, according to FIFA, with those within the industry indicating November could be the timeframe.

A group of international and North American based FIFA experts leading operational areas from transport and stadium operations to hospitality and pitch management have completed half of its next set of site visits. FIFA visited Miami, Houston, Atlanta, Kansas City, Boston, New York New Jersey, Philadelphia and Toronto in a nine-day span in September.

............

Do we know anything for sure?​

At the most recent official FIFA Congress, it was announced that the 2026 World Cup final will be on Sunday, July 19. When FIFA recently put the 2026 TV rights out to the market in Australia, it said the tournament would last 5 ½ weeks, which would mean the opening match will be around the week of June 7.

The 48-team tournament will be the biggest FIFA World Cup, with 104 matches. And another reason the schedule has not been released yet is because it wasn’t supposed to be 104 matches to begin with.

 

[Zidane98]

I have a family member moving to UK in January.

Are there any VPNs that will work with Optus Sport that anyone knows of?

 

[SM]

I have a family member moving to UK in January.

Are there any VPNs that will work with Optus Sport that anyone knows of?

Didn't we have this discussion recently? Optus doesn't work with VPNs.

 

[Zidane98]

Didn't we have this discussion recently? Optus doesn't work with VPNs.

I do vaguely remember. Is that with all VPN services? Why wouldn't Optus work with a VPN?

 

[SM]

I do vaguely remember. Is that with all VPN services? Why wouldn't Optus work with a VPN?

Like plenty of other services they can now detect when you're using a VPN. Ironically if you're on roaming data it actually does work - I suppose because the roaming is saying you actually are using Aussie internet.

 

[Zidane98]

Like plenty of other services they can now detect when you're using a VPN. Ironically if you're on roaming data it actually does work - I suppose because the roaming is saying you actually are using Aussie internet.

Roaming data costs a shitload doesn't it? How many GB would a PL game be?

 

[SM]

Roaming data costs a shitload doesn't it? How many GB would a PL game be?

My plan with Vodafone was $5 a day.

 

[Zidane98]

My plan with Vodafone was $5 a day.

Unlimited data? That's pretty decent if you could activate it match days only.

 

[SM]

Unlimited data? That's pretty decent if you could activate it match days only.

Well it was $5 to use my normal plan which has something like 300GB.

 

[Bradesmaen]

I have a family member moving to UK in January.

Are there any VPNs that will work with Optus Sport that anyone knows of?

What do they need it for? Watching PL games?