10 ViacomCBS’ recent investment in football fills a gap in its content lineup to attract big sporting audiences in Australia, says sports sales director Nick Bower.
The A-League competition, which kicks off this Friday night, recently moved to 10 after 15 years with Fox Sport. The five-year broadcast deal for the men’s and women’s games is reportedly worth up to $200 million.
Speaking to AdNews, Bower says the network is confident it can boost the sport’s audience, which hasn’t been taken “seriously” by its competitors.
“Traditionally, the sports that 10 has done really well with have been those big nationalistic moments, such as the Melbourne Cup Carnival and the Australian Grand Prix, but we haven't had a big consistent sport and I think that's where the opportunity has arrived for football to play the role there,” Bower says.
“Looking at the opportunity of how to make it big, 10 ViacomCBS has a good pedigree in making pay TV sport big. The Big Bash is probably the best example of that with 3.7 times the audience for Big Bash in the first year that we had it versus the previous year when it was on pay TV.
“So there's a good pedigree, we know how to make a pay TV sport big, football shares our core values and we see a strong opportunity to grow with the sport. Australians love football, in fact there's two times more football players out there than there is AFL or cricket. So, we have a really big audience and a huge foundation that is yearning for more football and for someone to take it seriously. That’s a role 10 ViacomCBS is happy to play.”
Nick Bower
The games will be broadcast across linear TV, as well as 10Play and the newly launched subscription streaming service Paramount+.
Bower says the audience for the national teams, which 10 ViacomCBS also secured broadcast rights for in a separate deal, is a sign of what it expects for the A-League’s audience growth.
The first Matildas games 10 broadcasted were up on average 75% on its audience projection, as well as what the time slot was doing previously.
Bower says 10Play has also benefited, with 70% of signups in the past four weeks being younger males seeking football coverage, leading to 4.8 million registered viewers on the platform.
“People are finding the new home of football on 10 ViacomCBS. They're responding to the way we're telling the football stories and audiences are up so far,” Bower says.
“That gives us enormous confidence that we have the mix right, we're on the right path and we are set to have a really big season of A-league kicking off on the weekend.”
So far, advertisers such as McDonald’s, Harvey Norman, Isuzu UTE, and telco Mate are on board. Bower says the women’s game has strong interest from adveriters.
“We went to market playing into the key understanding of why we went into football and talking about those core values such as diversity and the empowerment of women football,” Bower says.
“We also talked about the growth trajectory and how big that supporter base is of the foundation of players out there that have a real interest in football but perhaps haven't really got the love that they deserve previously with the way football has been brought to life on some of our competitors.
“So we’ve led with that insight and drive into what we're calling the new home of football and so far brands and clients and our partners have responded really well.”
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