Australian pay-TV heavyweight Foxtel will see its Fox Sports channels rebranded as Kayo Sports offerings in 2027.
DAZN, the owner of Foxtel, will rename all Fox Sports channels as Kayo Sports – Fox Footy, Fox Cricket, and Fox League will thus become Kayo Footy, Kayo Cricket, and Kayo League, for example.
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Up until this point, Kayo has been the name for the streaming platform run by Foxtel, a sister operation to the linear Fox Sports offering.
The platform went live in 2018 and will now see its name adorn all Foxtel's sports broadcasting offerings in Australia.
The move is part of the overall Foxtel transition to becoming DAZN Media+, which has been in the pipeline since the global sports subscription heavyweight acquired Foxtel in April last year.
The aim, DAZN has said, is to combine the production, journalism, and on-air talent associated with Fox Sports, with the subscription base, digital reach, and streaming expertise of Kayo.
Fox Sports' managing director, Steve Crawley, commented: "We continue to set the standard for sports broadcasting at Kayo Sports and, in 2027, will be raising the bar even higher through an unmatched offering of more than 50 sports, best-in-class production, and the most experienced and entertaining line-up of talent in the industry.
“With the support of DAZN now behind us, Kayo Sports is only going to grow into a sports media powerhouse.”
In terms of significant recent sports rights activity from the broadcaster, early July saw the NRL, Australia’s top-tier rugby league competition, announce a record domestic media rights agreement with Kayo, Nine Network, and Sky New Zealand worth A$5.3 billion ($3.7 billion).
The new seven-year contract, which runs through 2034, is claimed to be the largest broadcast and media partnership in Australian sporting history.
Meanwhile, it was also announced that Kayo has retained rights to sailing's iconic America's Cup.
The partnership extension was secured with the America's Cup Partnership (ACP) organization and covers the 38th America's Cup in Italy in 2027.
Team Australia will return as an America's Cup entrant for the first time in close to 30 years.
Full action from next year's event – including the Preliminary Regattas, Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Selection Series 2027, America’s Cup Match 2027, Women’s America’s Cup, and Youth America’s Cup – will be made available to Kayo Sports subscribers.
The Kayo Freebies site will also make live coverage available for free, as well as housing highlights.
The America's Cup match itself will be held in Naples next July, with the Challenger Selection series taking place across May and June.
In neighboring New Zealand, coverage of the race will be provided by national broadcaster TVNZ, with the country's team having won the last three editions of the iconic event.
TVNZ had shown sailing’s blue-riband event for almost 30 years until pay-TV giant Sky NZ secured an exclusive contract covering the 2017 edition and its preceding qualifying series.
The public broadcaster took back the rights ahead of the 2021 America’s Cup, while media giant Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) snapped up rights to the 2024 edition, which it aired on its free-to-air channel Three in New Zealand.
