Exclusive sports deals worthless: analysts

2 Feb 2012, 4:09 pm   -   Source: AAP

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Exclusive rights deals are now worthless after a court ruling allowing Optus to broadcast sports matches online, analysts say.

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A Federal Court ruling allowing Optus to broadcast sports matches online means multi-million dollar exclusive rights deals are worthless, media analysts say.

In a ruling on Wednesday, the Federal Court found Optus did not breach copyright law by broadcasting matches via its new TV Now service.

Telstra holds exclusive internet broadcast rights for both the AFL and NRL, with its latest $153 million deal with the AFL covering the 2012 to 2016 seasons.

Senior analyst at Fat Prophets Greg Fraser said the value of such exclusive content "is essentially now zero".

"Why would they pay any money for an AFL match if another party like Optus can come along and simply take that broadcast for nothing and send it off to their own subscribers," Mr Fraser said on Thursday.

He said the ruling may also jeopardise exclusive rights deals with TV networks.

"Why would Channel 7, Foxtel, Channel 9 and Channel 10 be prepared to pay any money at all to broadcast sporting code matches," Mr Fraser said.

"For a start, they're not going to be able to aggregate the audience they thought they would because it's going to be leaked elsewhere as soon as they broadcast it.

"On the back of that, advertisers simply won't pay for it knowing that audiences are half or less of what they thought they were getting."

Mr Fraser said the ruling may impact all other programming on TV and not just sport.

"When Home and Away gets broadcast, what's to stop TV Now taking that and two minutes later putting it across their mobile network," he said.

He said the NRL, AFL and other sporting codes will likely be calling on the government to change copyright legislation to protect their broadcasting rights.

"If I was (communications minister) Senator Stephan Conroy sitting in Canberra today watching this unfold, I would be exceedingly worried because his portfolio is about to blow up in his face."

Senator Conroy said the court's decision was a far reaching decision which could change the way sporting rights were allocated and whether it's possible to protect content online.

"No one will pay for these rights if they can't find a way to make money off them," Senator Conroy told the Nine Network.

EL&C Baillieu senior analyst Ivor Ries said the sporting codes would pressure the government to change existing laws.

"They will be speaking to all their members of parliament and banging their fist on the table," he said.

Read Bill Code's blog: Optus win looks good from the cheap seats

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