The Australian sports-rights market may have reached a “tipping point” in terms of fees, according to Tim Worner, the chief executive of Seven West Media, which operates commercial channel Seven.
Worner, who cited a “tough market” as Seven reported a loss of Aus$745m (€500m/$586m) for the latest financial year, said that the ever-increasing value of premium rights is unsustainable.
“Sports rights have reached a tipping point in this country,” Worner said, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Given changes in the market, price rises are not sustainable. We have to reach a position where the economics stack up for all parties [and] where the power and reach that free-to-air brings [to sports].”
Worner added that Seven is operating “in a very different market” to when it negotiated the rights to the 2020 summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. Chief financial officer Warwick Lynch said that about Aus$70m in write downs for the 2020-21 financial year would relate to Seven’s Olympics coverage, due to lower-than-anticipated advertising income.
Seven chairman Kerry Stokes said that the broadcaster would continue to invest in “long-standing associations” with the Olympics, the Australian Open tennis grand slam and the AFL Aussie rules league as “these properties provide strategic relevance and increase our exposure to millions of viewers across free-to-air television and mobile devices.”