Volleyball World, the commercial vehicle of global governing body FIVB, has announced a domestic rights deal for the 2025 Beach Volleyball World Championships with Australian public-service broadcaster SBS.
The tournament is set to take place in Adelaide, South Australia, from 14 to 23 November, with SBS providing live coverage of all matches on its SBS On Demand streaming service or linear channel, SBS Viceland, across the country.
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The broadcaster will also provide additional behind-the-scenes content across its digital platforms.
The 2025 edition of the tournament will be the first World Championships ever staged in Australia and the Oceania region and will feature 192 of the world’s best beach volleyball players.
The rights add to SBS’s previous coverage of volleyball tournaments, including the Australian Volleyball Super League and other international events, including during last year’s Olympic Games in Paris.
International sports marketing firm Sportfive is the tournament's exclusive sponsorship agency.
Under that deal, the agency will handle domestic sponsorship sales for the event, with both men’s and women’s events taking place simultaneously.
The new rights deal comes as Volleyball World prepares for its chief executive, Finn Taylor, to step down on April 25.
News of his departure was announced on March 31, with Finn stating: “Having successfully delivered on my mandate, I feel the time is right to pass the baton to a new leader who will continue to drive the vision forward and take Volleyball World to even greater heights.”
While the search for a permanent replacement CEO is conducted, Martyn Phillips, the vice chair of the Volleyball World board, will take the role of interim CEO.
Taylor came on board as Volleyball World’s chief executive when that vehicle launched in early 2021 through private equity heavyweights CVC buying a 33% stake worth around $100 million.
Since then, the commercial entity has seen increased media rights deals and a new direct-to-consumer streaming service that has 1.5 million members.
More recently, Volleyball World struck a decade-long deal with international sports data technology provider Stats Perform in March.
At the end of February, meanwhile, it announced a new commercial tie-up with sports technology firm TGI Sports, a provider of digital media solutions, to enhance its broadcast capabilities.
