Sports loving Australians are set to get a brand new sports streaming service backed by international investors with the capability to buy into some of the world’s biggest sporting events.
News Corp announced last night that they had finalised the sale of Foxtel Group to global sports streaming provider DAZN after they got the final tick of approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board.
The closure of the deal now puts them in a strong position to bid for the rights to NRL games from 2027 with the backing of deep pocketed owners of the network that also owns Kayo.
Currently the CEO of Foxtel Patrick Delany (Seen above) who will head the new DAZN operationinAustralia is in negotiations with the NRL.
DAZN chief executive Shay Segev will be in Australia to sign off on the $3.4 billion deal, the takeover is tipped to be a problem for the free to air TV networks in Australia who are trying to get access to both the streaming and free to air rights of NRL games in Australia.
The platform already reaches tens of millions of global sports fans as they have the domestic rights to premier football leagues such as Italy’s Serie A, Spain’s La Liga, Germany’s Bundesliga, and Japan’s J. League, they are also big in boxing.
Insiders claim that the benefit of an NRL deal with DAZN is that the new owners of Foxtel Group can take the game to a wider global audience which is what the NRL is currently attempting to do via their investment in having the opening of the season in Las Vegas in the USA.
In February, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund bought a minority stake in DAZN for a reported $1.6 billion.
It was revealed in December 2024 that DAZN was buying Foxtel Group from majority shareholder News Corp and minority shareholder Telstra in a deal with an enterprise value of $3.5 billion.
The transaction, which has now received all necessary regulatory approvals including from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, features a A$592 million repayment of shareholder loans to News Corp.
The Rupert Murdoch-controlled media giant also secured an approximately 6% minority stake in DAZN, along with a board seat for News Corp senior VP and deputy CFO Andrew Cramer.
“Foxtel’s successful transformation to becoming a leading provider of sports and entertainment is a result of the team’s tenacity, creativity and professionalism,” News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson said in a statement. “Foxtel employees should be proud of their contribution to that success in the ultra-competitive content contest.”
The deal represents a significant strategic pivot for News Corp, which is increasingly focusing on its core growth pillars. According to CFO Lavanya Chandrashekar, these divisions drove more than 95% of the company’s total segment EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) in its fiscal second quarter.
“It will also meaningfully strengthen our balance sheet and should reduce future capital intensity and improve return on invested capital,” Chandrashekar added. “We expect the disposition will also be accretive to earnings per share.”
News Corp platforms will remain committed to supporting Australian sport and entertainment, according to the deal completion announcement, with Thomson noting the company is “confident that DAZN is poised to drive the next phase of Foxtel’s growth, and we are delighted to be DAZN’s partner and shareholder.”
