Ok… this is my last piece on the media deal, at least for a while, for the sake of my own sanity. This time I want to focus a little more on SBS’s potential football investment off of the back of the Australian Championship, because outside of the commercial success of the broadcast itself, the re-entry to the domestic football media market may have great impacts to the rest of its football portfolio.

In recent SBS has been quietly building a football portfolio. These days the network is already broadcasting MLS, South American Qualifiers and FIFA Youth Tournaments to complement its flagship FIFA World Cup rights. Outside of the World Cup coverage though, this other content is production light so the network largely divested of any material inhouse football production.

Considering this  the SBS investment into the Australian Championship is a strong signal by the network of its intent to rebuild its football brand after retiring The World Game banner a number of years ago. The Australian Championship will require a significant step up in the network’s inhouse production and will facilitate the rebuilding of the SBS football brand in a meaningful way by offering a platform for new commentators, producers and presenters to build a repertoire with a local and engaged football audience.

SBS in fact already tested the waters earlier this year with the production of a new football magazine and highlights show. ‘The Weekly Football Wrap’ may have failed to find a large audience but it saw the production of magazine style content and interviews presented by a consistent domestic presentation team. The network obviously saw enough green shoots from the project to support the investment into the Australian Championship which offers a natural growth opportunity for the team behind the The Weekly Football Wrap.

At a minimum the competition will re-introduce the network to local football audiences ahead of the FIFA World Cup and will build an inhouse production capacity to help avoid a cold start to their presentation of the 2026 tournament. At a maximum the competition could see the re-establishment of a broadcast-rights agnostic football brand on SBS, ala

‘The World Game’.

The new competition will see new faces on our screens and an engaged football audience re-enter the SBS ecosystem. Although the network’s recent pivot away from the game is partially in response to reduced commercial capacity and other outlets covering the game I think now that the streaming has somewhat settled a re-analysis of the market is appropriate.

Fans are frustrated by the constantly switching broadcast arrangements which are increasingly behind paywalls. The domestic market has also shrunk with the exit of Optus and limited new talent being given chances on major networks like Paramount and Stan. This provides SBS with a competitive advantage. There is a high number of low cost rights constantly available and the network boasts a number of free platforms with multiple revenue stream opportunities. This creates commercial upside and a marketing advantage. The creation of a media-rights agnostic football platform will help SBS create a dedicated and valuable audience that is resistant to products being poached by other networks. This is the same strategy SBS uses for films (via World Movies), food content (SBS Food) and even international news (WorldWatch). What all these brands have though, is a flagship product that build habit. World Movies partners with film festivals and has a different broadcast these each week. SBS Food is anchored by the night show The Cook Up. WorldWatch programming is advertised to relevant markets though SBS radio. Football can fit this space too!

So we have these components that SBS has made work in the past – a large availability of low cost programming, commercial upside via a competitive advantage, an existing underserviced audience of engaged football fans and flagship products to launch a new brand in the form of the World Cup and the Australian Championship. The missing ingredient though is the development of an anchor program.

It should be noted thought that the previous efforts from SBS in this space have been largely a failure and require a careful brand construction and meaningful purpose in line with the network mandate. The value of highlights shows have been diminished since the access to match highlights online (minimising the value of shows like The Weekly Football Wrap and even later editions of the World Game). Similarly the niche and technical nature of football analysis and commentary limits this value of this content on broad platforms where it may better find an audience online via short videos or podcasts. This suggests that SBS needs to find a different value and purpose for a new football brand.

So what will that be? I think there’s really one thing they need to develop – a unique tone from personalities with chemistry – just as Les Murrary had with his cast of co-hosts. A magazine style show with an online focus could hit this mark, similar to how SBS used to produce their current affairs show ‘The Feed’. Coupled up with SBS’s diversity mandate and the network has a great opportunity with football.

Consider this. A 30 minute night football magazine show produced at low cost with a small production and presenter crew that leverages a rotating cast of casual guests and journalists. Low cost interviews, and semi-frequent magazine features with a focus on domestic and diverse football stories (Afghan women’s team, migrant participation in Australian Football and a million others). Platforming minority voices not seen in general football presentation (working to resolve the underrepresentation of women, people of colour and other minority groups). Efficiencies across the news programming are an obvious benefit as is the ability to explore stories through overlapping themes on programs like Insight. Jeeze, depending on the rights they are able to secure there may even be value in SBS considering launching a full blown SBS Sport channel to complement their existing offering

Does the Australian Championship help this vision? Certainly! It’s a great tester for SBS! Anyway I’m tired of all this now and hope not to talk about SBS again – for at least a month.