Reigning A-League champions Adelaide United will play the Central Coast Mariners in one of two Mariners games set for Canberra next season. Credit:Daniel Kalisz "Having got EPL we will build a content suite around people who are football fans," Mr Lew said. "We will be building something around that to engage football fans when there is no live game, or nothing interesting to watch in terms of football." Key differentiator Optus has faced criticism over its planned coverage for the EPL, which it secured as part of a $189 million deal. The service will only be available to Optus customers and Mr Lew was adamant that the telco would not revisit that strategy.

"One principle that we will always stick to is that you have to be an Optus customers to get it because it's something that is a key differentiator for us. I cannot move away from that principle," he said. "On an individual basis, we will see what we need to do to solve some of these problems for customers." However, the fight for A-League broadcast rights is unlikely to be a walkover for the telco. It is understood that the Ten Network is keen on a Saturday night A-League game and chief executive Paul Anderson has publicly declared his interest in the competition. Sources said that subscription providers are open to free-to-air television playing an important role in the new deal.

Important property Optus signed a deal with SBS, following the telco operator's acquisition of rights to the EPL, that allowed the television broadcaster to show one match per week on Saturday nights for the next three seasons. The agreement with SBS gave Optus broadcast rights to FIFA events, including the 2018 men's World Cup and the 2019 women's World Cup. The FFA has been engaging with a number of interested parties and official negotiations began in late April, as first revealed by Fairfax Media. Incumbent rights holder Fox Sports, which is keen to hold onto the rights, has first and last rights and has held rights to the A-League since its inception in 2005.

Fox Sports chief executive Patrick Delany told Fairfax Media that the A-League is an important property to the pay TV sports provider. "We have been an unfalteringly strong supporter of Australian football and specifically the A-League and that dates along way back to the time when the A-League was only a glimpse in the eye of Frank Lowy," Mr Delany said "We're committed to continue to work with the FFA and the football community to build on what's happened in the last 10 years and continue to mission of making football more popular in Australia." The majority of World Cup qualifiers, many of which are owned by World Sports Group (WSG), will be played out before the current deal expires. WSG owns round three World Cup qualifiers as well as the Asian Champions League and Asia Cup.

Market surprised The current $40 million per season, four-year deal, which expires in mid-2017, sees Fox Sports show all matches, including the weekend's higher rating derbies and rivalry games. SBS has rights to show one Friday match live each week, and the finals series on delay. Prior to the beginning of the A-League season, which just finished with Adelaide United winning its first grand final, it looked as though SBS might sell its current free-to-air rights to a commercial broadcaster such as Nine Entertainment, Seven West Media or Network Ten. However, a deal failed to materialise. SBS's desire to exit the A-League may see a deal finalised before the current rights agreement expires. Oliver & Ohlbaum are advising the FFA on the negotiations. They were recommended by City Football Group, owners of English Premier League giants Manchester City and 80 per cent of A-league club Melbourne City.

Fairfax Media revealed in January last year that the FFA were confident of an uptick in the value of broadcast rights, potentially as high as $80 million per year. However, this would be contingent on bidders believing they could achieve higher ratings than the sport currently gets. In November, Optus surprised many in the market by swooping on rights to the EPL and agreeing to pay $63 million annually, which is understood to be more than double the $20 million a year that Fox Sports is currently paying. Foxtel responded to the loss of the English Premier League by signing new deals with six of the competition's biggest teams to broadcast the clubs' own channels, as revealed by Fairfax Media. Foxtel, which is 50-50 owned by News Corporation and Telstra, will broadcast matches, on delay, for Arsenal, Manchester City, Tottenham, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea. The pay TV provider also struck a deal with beIN Sports to move its high-definition channels over to the regular sports package, providing Champions League, Spain's La Liga, Germany's Bundesliga and Italy's Serie A.