Fox in A$120m soccer TV deal

Fox Sports paid more than A$120 million ($142.5 million) to broadcast Australian soccer for the next seven years, boosting the world's most-watched sport as it tries to make ground on the nation's three other football codes.

The pay-television broadcaster, part-owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and Publishing & Broadcasting, outbid Australia's three commercial networks to acquire exclusive rights to domestic A-League games, Asian Champions League matches and non-World Cup internationals through to 2013, Fox Sports and Football Federation Australia said yesterday.

Fox Sports is betting that soccer's renaissance in a country that prefers Australian rules football, rugby league and rugby union will attract new customers.

Interest in soccer has risen after officials revamped the domestic league and the national team qualified for its first World Cup in 32 years.

"Football's performance over the past 12 months suggests it can fulfil its potential in Australia in the years ahead," Fox Sports chief executive David Malone said.

For soccer bosses including Football Federation Australia chief executive John O'Neill and chairman Frank Lowy, the broadcast deal guarantees revenue of about A$17 million a year to run the flagship A-League and national teams. Fox Sports paid A$750,000 to televise the inaugural A-League campaign.

The deal will help the federation "support and nurture the whole of the game, including the professional and community arms," said Lowy, Australia's second-richest man.

From the end of this year all Socceroos games, including World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers and Asian Cup finals matches, will be available only on pay-TV. Public broadcaster SBS, a longtime supporter of soccer in Australia, retains the rights to the 2010 and 2014 World Cup finals.

- BLOOMBERG