Having free to air games and a viable competition is everyone’s preferred option. Every one having free access to watch the competition dissolve helps no-one. Let’s see what bids are tabled and then make an assessment.

the a-league is a commie league, it will collapse in a few years time just like the former NSL did and the former soviet union did. the quiker the better i say!

Back to topic there is little doubt that to continue growing HAL needs some FTA component. As stated in other posts a 30 or 60 mins highlights show would be ideal coupled with a match of the round game possibly Friday nights. The remaining games on pay TV. The semi finals and GF would be on FTA as they are great drama. It would be a test the waters scenario initially and make adjustments as needed to the schedule. By this time MV will be playing in their new stadium with crowds of 25-30,000 looking and sounding great on TV.
The Socceroos are the big carrot and need to be tied to the TV deal for at least the next deal. Socceroos draw record audiences on pay TV and FTA alike.
The other point worth mentioning is the possibility of Oz having the 2018/2022 WC here. With the boost to football from that any tv deal will need to add an extra 0 or 00.

As menitioned by Rodrigo Orihuela in the Guardian.

“The truth is that Clarín and the two consecutive Kirchner administrations have always had a complicated relationship, which is getting sourer by the day. The government accuses the media group of opposing its policies and is seeking a way to curtail its power. Snatching football from it is a major step in this direction.”

So what we have here is the classic battle between right-wing monopolistic press trying to protect the interests of the neo-liberal elite by using their dominance to run interference for the rich.

The Centre-Left government is frustrated with the crap they have to contend with and have decided to get the people on their side.

This is what you call “Democracy in action”

Or as someone else so wisely out it -

“The lesson of this is that if a society doesn’t provide enough opportunities so people can pay for cable TV, they will eventually have to provide it for free.”

Art, the company who owned the rights to Argentinian football were Grupo Clarin, who are Argentinian, not Rede Globo, who are Brazilian.

In my view, governments should be able to find better things to do with their time than worry about the success of sporting organisations.

When governments involve themselves in sports its almost always to appeal to a specific set of voters rather than to improve society.

Nobody screws Soccer like 7 … cannot see given the past history 7 given the nod…

Nine are also showing interest… it comes down to whats on offer and as I posted in the code war thread Football has a lot of broadcast plathforms..in part copied from that post. Almost impossible not to have a lot of Football product on FTA

International :
Football 9 national teams, World Cup, Asian Cup, Olympics, Qualifers + friendlies

Club International :
Football Asian Champions League
World Club Challenge

Local Domestic:

A-League 10 growing to 14 teams
W-League 8 growing to ??

Local Park :
Football next year in the FA Cup competition…

Junior Player No’s:

Football in all States very strong,

I doubt the A league is worth any money for FTA and I predict it will be a sweet heart deal with SBS, ABC or One HD where no or little money changes hands but reaching those without pay tv is essential.

Is that good or bad for the game?

SBS is the only FTA station I can see doing a good job

Maybe chan10 cause they have a youth orientated market, but I see 9 and 7 butchering it.

So getting on FTA is about reaching 70% to 80% of the population who may be a bit interested in football but not yet enough to make the leap of getting Pay TV.

I really have no prob with the way Fox handles the HAL, and if it is to go to a Non-SBS FTA channel, I would be fearful of how it would be handled.

That said a game or two on SBS would be brilliant. Not only do they know how to handle a football match, their audience is the one we want to attract, the euro snobs who are still on the fence

But since the Fox deal we dotn get anything.

I think that the FFA should look to let an hour of A-League on SBS or a similar package. Get some promotion of the free to air net works.

The thing is even non football fans can stomach an hour of goals and high lights from various game around the nation.

If that’s all that ends up happening, you could almost say fair enough.

But this is what inevitably ends up happening.

The gap between revenues and costs starts to widen (afterall, why go chasing revenues if the Governemnt will bail you out).

Then two years down the track, the Argentine FA says to government, geez, we’re still having trouble holding onto players, we’re going to have to double salaries – so the Government is now farming out four times the market value for the TV rights, on top of god knows what other support it’s offering.

That’s the slippery slope to nowhere that I’m talking about and it can never resolved itself as long as government continues farming out money way, way over market value.

It’s the same recipe that has reduced Argentina to relative poverty over the last century (when in fact it was once one of the richest countries in the world).

I also agree with a lot of commentators that an HAL highlights package is required on FTA asap.

Foxtel have done a great job of broadcasting football, and only SBS of the FTA stations could provide the same quality.

In your delusional capitalist utopia, you think people run businesses for the betterment of society. They don’t.

When they do I can comfortably say that govt does not have any business in anybody’s business.

Why don’t you read Noami Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine” and get some balance.

Gee, it was only last year that we had govts bailing out all sorts of fat cat bankers who produce nothing of value.

Football at least is worth saving as it puts a smile on peoples faces, regardless of their circumstances.

More kids would get to see their heroes play, that is something that can’t be measured by dollars$$$$

The cultural implications of not having Australia’s most popular participation sport (football) and most popular sporting team (Socceroos) on FTA is again unmeasurable.

I think having two games a week and a highlights package is all that is needed.
A-League
A Live Friday night game and a delayed Sunday night game would be ideal. The other advantage of FTA is that the TV station would sell it more thus more ads and more space on it’s nightly news and sports coverage. The other FTA stations would follow suit.

All Socceroos matches should be on FTA.

Channel 7 has half the AFL, Tennis and swimming.

Channel 9 has exclusive NRL

ABC has the W-League

SBS has football programs, but no leagues.

I think that SBS and ABC would be a bad choice for the A-League as they have much less exposure than the main 3.

OneHD has already jumped on the football bandwagon with the exclusive showing of both the German Bundes Liga and the Italian Serie A. I hope they can expand to the A-League in 2013. This would be a huge boost for football in Australia.

1. one player (Fox) is completely taken out of the bidding process; and
2. the A-League is set free on its own – and if anyone thinks anyone is going to cough up big bucks for the A-League without the Socceroos, they have rocks in their head.

I simply invite people to check the latest Fox ratings.

Anytime you rely 100% on government assistance for your survival, it is an absolute admission of failure.