Football Federation Australia has confirmed it is in talks with commercial broadcaster Ten over a deal that could give the A-League significantly more exposure via free-to-air television, reports SportBusiness.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Ten is seeking to become the long-term FTA home of the club competition. The A-League's FTA rights are available from the 2019-20 season and FFA chief executive David Gallop said: "We are in discussions with Channel 10 but it's not appropriate to go into the details at this point.
"We need to protect the substantial investment that Fox Sports have made in the A-League while recognising that free-to-air coverage opens the game to more eyeballs."
FFA signed a new long-term domestic rights deal with pay-television broadcaster Fox Sports in December 2016. The six-year agreement covers the 2017-18 to 2022-23 seasons.
This agreement includes a provision for one A-League match per week to be televised FTA. This is currently fulfilled through a partnership between Fox and Ten, through which the former purchased the Saturday night timeslot from the latter with matches broadcast via Ten's digital channel, One.
