Sports streaming services in Australia are raising prices and increasing advertising as they seek to recoup billions spent on broadcasting rights in recent years, industry executives said. The shifts come amid deals that secure major sporting content for the long term, but also reflect the ongoing tension between cost recovery and subscriber retention.
Nine Entertainment and Stan recently extended their Premier League rights agreement until 2034, a partnership reportedly costing around AUD 120 million annually. This deal, following Nine’s acquisition of rights from the now-defunct Optus Sport last year, underscores the Premier League’s status as the fourth most valuable sports competition on Australian television. Alongside this, the National Rugby League signed a AUD 5.3 billion deal earlier this year with Nine and Foxtel, locking in rights for Australia’s four most lucrative leagues until at least 2031.
A review of eight major sports streaming platforms in Australia found that six have raised their base subscription prices since early 2025. The only exception has been Disney+, which has reduced its base price following the introduction of an ad-supported tier in April, now available for AUD 10 per month. However, this reflects a broader market trend where platforms that originally attracted customers with ad-free models have gradually incorporated advertising into at least some subscription levels.
Beverley McGarvey, president and streaming lead for Paramount Australia and New Zealand, acknowledged the delicate balance faced by providers. Speaking at the SportNXT conference in Melbourne last week, she noted that price increases are driven by rising production and rights costs, but must be tempered by consumers’ willingness to pay and engage with the content. “The audience dictates what you can do, how much they’re willing to pay, how much content they will actually consume, and then the market kind of rights itself, or something new comes along,” she said.
Amanda Laing, managing director of Channel Nine and Stan, echoed this perspective, observing that advertising has become a near-universal feature of streaming services. “You remember most of the streaming services started with no ads, ‘you’re paying, so no ads,’ and some services were, ‘over my dead body will there be ads,’ and guess what? They’ve all got ads on one tier,” she said.
Despite the consolidation of rights, both Laing and McGarvey expect limited further fragmentation of the sports streaming market in Australia over the coming decade. “The number that there is now is probably about the number there’s going to be,” McGarvey said.
However, this does not guarantee stability in pricing or subscription options. Laing explained that Stan continuously adjusts its strategies to attract users or increase revenue, sometimes accepting lower average revenue per user temporarily to achieve greater market impact. The acquisition of Optus Sport and its Premier League rights contributed to a 50 percent boost in Stan Sport subscriptions last year. Nevertheless, the platform has seen a decline of about 70,000 subscribers from its peak of 800,000, largely attributed to some former Optus customers deciding not to migrate to Stan due to pricing considerations.
As costs continue to rise and competition stabilizes, Australian sports streaming services face ongoing challenges in balancing financial sustainability with maintaining subscriber growth and satisfaction.