Foxtel management and News Corp have fallen on their feet with the $3.4b acquisition of the locally grown streaming Company by UK streaming outfit DAZN who also benefit from Foxtel’s digital strength.

Also clapping in the stalls, will be the NRL with this deal a made in heaven way to expand Australian Rugby League to a global audience.

Currently Foxtel only has global rights to sell to ex pats with the DAZN deal opening up the potential of Australia sport getting wider exposure globally.

News Corp and Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany and their advisors have to be credited with pulling off the deal, which puts Foxtel back on the global stage following the seven times multiple EBITDA deal.

Back in 2019, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox from Rupert Murdoch in a US$71.3 billion deal, Fox Sports was then spun off into a new company called Fox Corporation with Foxtel left to stand alone in Australia.

Now following the acquisition Foxtel is back being part of a global streaming play with other codes such as cricket and rugby potentially on their radar, with the potential that Cricket Australia and Rugby Union codes globally could bel rolled into a global play while benefiting from a DAZN deal.

The deal is also going to make it very hard for Seven West and Nine Entertainment to secure both streaming rights and free to air TV rights.

DAZN was created in 2016 by Perform Group, a sports media company majority-owned by Access Industries.
It spun out DAZN in 2018.

Access Industries is the investment vehicle for Len Blavatnik, who is worth more than $US40 billion ($63 billion) and is one of the world’s richest men.

He has poured billions of dollars into DAZN, which has been aggressively scooping up sports broadcast rights all over the world. Earlier this month, it agreed to a $US1 billion deal to broadcast all 63 matches of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. It has 20 million paying subscribers and 60 million users.

The $3.4M deal with Foxtel delivers a solid digital platform for DAZN with additional free cash flow and an expanded subscription base.

“The deal is a vindication of the digital nature of the company that we could attract seven times EBITDA” claimed Delany.

“If it had only been Foxtel, it wouldn’t have been anywhere near that. But with 75% of the business digital and half of the revenues and advertising coming from digital we have been able to get a higher premium”.

Currently DAZN has a global reach of 300 million consumers across 200 Countries.

According to Foxtel management DAZN picked up two billion in additional revenue which will see their revenues increase to around $6 billion.

The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, will bring together Foxtel and DAZN, a privately held global streaming business.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp said the agreement with DAZN follows a strategic and financial review of Foxtel “as part of News Corp’s ongoing efforts to optimize its portfolio and simplify the structure of the company.” Under the terms of the transaction, News Corp and Telstra will become minority shareholders in DAZN, enabling them to retain an interest in Foxtel, they will also have a seat on the board.

The deal is expected to close by mid-2025, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

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