Anti-social kickoff times in the early hours of the morning mean that the English Premier League is less valuable than it might otherwise be in the Australian market, according to News Corporation chief executive Robert Thomson.
Earlier this week, the News Corp-owned Fox Sports network lost the Premier League TV rights to Optus for the next three years, with the telecommunications company paying US$45 million per annum.
Thomson defended the decision not to outbid Optus to keep the world's most famous league on Australia's most watched sports cable network. The new deal will kick in at the start of the 2016-17 season.
"There are some EPL fans in Australia, there's no doubt about that, but we're certainly not talking about prime time. The 3 p.m. kickoff in UK is 2 a.m. in Australia," Thomson said.
"You can buy any right as long as you're prepared to pay any price. But, sometimes, by our reckoning, any price is not appropriate for us or our shareholders,"
In the Australian summer months, the major cities of Sydney and Melbourne are 11 hours ahead of London. That means even the early 12.45 p.m. Premier League kickoff slots play at 11.45 p.m. on Australia's east coast.
In Asian cities like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong -- who are currently eight hours ahead of the UK -- match timings are more palatable.
"Hardcore fans of anything in Australia are called tragics, but the sweet spot for EPL at 2 in the morning... tragics are insomniacs," Thomson said.
The News Corp executive also took a dig at the quality of the Premier League, with English clubs struggling to make an impact in this season's UEFA Champions League against the best of Europe.
"You might have noticed yesterday Bayern Munich beat Arsenal 5-1 in the Champions League which may be itself an indictment of the value of the Premier League," he said.
The decision could yet strengthen Fox Sports' commitment to the A-League. Fox has been the Pay TV home of Australia's domestic competition since it began 11 seasons ago.