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A landmark broadcast agreement, an expanded national championship and a whole-of-sport approach for sponsors will "significantly" boost Netball Australia's commercial footprint, says deputy chief executive, Marne Fechner.
Netball Australia today announced it would dissolve its joint-venture with Netball New Zealand, the ANZ Championship, in favour of an eight-team Australian competition from 2017.
However, Netball Australia will open negotiations with ANZ with a view to keeping its major sponsor on-board. ANZ, which is also title sponsor of Netball Australia's key grassroots program, NetSetGo, is up for renewal later this year.
Telstra and the Nine Network have secured five-year broadcast deals for the new competition, which will include Australia's existing elite teams and three new sides, to be based in Melbourne, western Sydney and the Sunshine Coast.
AFL clubs Collingwood and GWS, and NRL side the Melbourne Storm (whose pathways team is based on the Sunshine Coast), have been revealed as the preferred bid operators for the three new teams.
Nine will show two live games and two delayed games each round, including a Saturday night double-header, while Telstra will simulcast all four games on its Netball Live app.
Telstra's partnership will also include a tie-in with its Telstra Thanks rewards program, while games will be shown on the Telstra TV platform for the first time. The telco will unveil its pricing structure in the coming months.
Netball Australia deputy chief executive, Marne Fechner, told Sponsorship News that the broadcast agreement would see Nine and Netball Australia work closely on sponsorship and advertising sales.
ANZ, Netball Australia's largest backer and the title sponsor of the ANZ Championship since 2008, did not respond to Sponsorship News requests for comment.
Fechner said she hoped ANZ would remain a major partner of the new league.
"We're in discussions with ANZ about what their future in netball will look like… They've been a massive supporter of netball and we'd love to keep them involved."
The majority of Netball Australia's commercial partners, including Asics, Chemist Warehouse and San Remo, are all up for renewal.
"We've got a great stable of sponsors that we're dying to have conversations with. Now that we know the broadcast structure, we'll begin to have those talks."
Fechner said the new media rights deal was a "significant piece in the puzzle" in boosting sponsorship revenue. Netball Australia's partnerships income rose 3% to $4.8 million last year, a figure which does not include the ANZ Championship or 2015 Netball World Cup revenue.
Netball Australia will have sole strategic control of the competition, which Fechner said would also give sponsors "holistic" reach across the sport's grassroots and pathways footprint.
Netball Australia will maintain sales internally, and is likely to expand its commercial department ahead of the 2017 launch of the competition.
