Why SBS must screen the A-League
Roar Guru By Jesse Fink, 23 Oct 2009 Jesse Fink is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- A-League, FFA, football, Football Federation Australia, Frank Lowy, SBS
Finally, some commonsense from Football Federation Australia, with Frank Lowy realising the game is up for the A-League and the Australian World Cup bid if drastic changes aren’t made – and made now.
At a function hosted by Melbourne Victory, Lowy acknowledged the future of the game wasn’t in being squirreled away on pay-TV and said “there’s no doubt that the game needs to be shown on free-to-air from time to time, or certain parts of the competition on free-to-air”.
This is a seismic statement from the FFA chairman and will have Fox Sports executives, to extend the earthquake metaphor for a moment, shaking in their boots.
With two years left on their seven-year, $120m deal, Fox would have been forward-planning to embed themselves even further in the profile of the local game, withstanding the rights already purloined by SBS, which include the 2010 and 2014 World Cups. Instead it has been left on shakier ground than ever before.
Football has been Fox’s glittering prize: A-League matches, A-League highlights shows, Socceroos qualifiers in Asia and for the World Cup, home friendlies.
A not inconsiderable bounty.
In the process, broadcasting careers have been made and a wedge driven between Fox and SBS for the bragging rights as the “home of football”.
But it appears Lowy has cottoned on to the fact that if he is going to bid for the World Cup, a mission whose raison d’etre is to bring the game of football to as many people as possible, he can’t at the same time be seen to be denying it to the majority of Australians, the very people he needs to get behind the campaign.
Hence his new, calculated message of “football to the people”. Up until now, true to his businessman’s creed, it was “football to the highest bidder”.
Football fans would be right to be cynical about it but hardly in a position to complain. For the game to truly grow it does need to be seen by as many people as possible, and that is on free-to-air.
What Lowy must equally do, however, is not make the same mistake as his predecessor, David Hill, and sell the game’s soul – or part of it – to the station with the biggest ratings or advertising revenue. Hill’s selling rights to Channel Seven back in the late 1990s was one of the greatest mistakes in the history of Australian sport.
Who can forget the slogan: “NOBODY SCREWS SOCCER LIKE 7”?
A former chief executive of its then-pay TV arm, C7, even admitted in an email the network had deliberately “suffocated the sport” in order to appease the AFL, who transferred its own rights from Seven to Nine and Ten.
No, the rights must go to the station that will do the right thing by the game. That station is SBS.
I say that not as a SBS employee (though I am) but as a football fan who appreciates what SBS has done and continues to do for the game I love. No one else, in my opinion, comes close to their passion for the game and the credibility and intelligence of their staff.
Give it to SBS, Frank. And let’s all get on with the show.
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- Explore:
- A-League, FFA, football, Football Federation Australia, Frank Lowy, SBS
October 23rd 2009 @ 8:26am
cbowden9000 said | October 23rd 2009 @ 8:26am | Report comment
There is no doubt that the A-League needs at least some free-to-air coverage, but saying that SBS should be the only network to get the rights is foolish. How much exposure and advertising would people see? People that aren’t already interested in football are less likely to know that an A-League game will be on SBS than say, if the games were on One HD.
Sports on One HD are advertised on Channel 10, and I must say that I believe the 10 Network to have no bias against Australian football. I watch Sports Tonight regularly, and unlike Channel 7 or Channel 9, Channel 10 speak positively about Australian football and very rarely report on the gossip and speculation of any sport. For example, during the Frank Farina sacking, channel 7 and channel 9 news would use negative words and speak in a negative tone of football, where as you got the straight story with all the facts in Sports Tonight’s report.
It needs to also be noted that One HD has already jumped on the football bandwagon with matches and highlights shows from the Serie A and the Bundesliga.
Vote 1: One HD
October 23rd 2009 @ 8:27am
JiMMM said | October 23rd 2009 @ 8:27am | Report comment
Jessie
While I agree that there needs be at the least a FTA component of the next TV deal for football, there is absolutely no reason the rights should just be “given” to SBS. The rights like anything else should go to the highest bidder (and there should be some pretty stirngent conditions that go with it), and if that happens to be SBS then so be it.
I also think FFA need to be careful when they sell the rights to make sure they aren’t screwing themselves like the NRL did. I don’t think any match should be broadcast live into the area that the game is being played in unless it is a sell out, e.g. A game played at Lang Park, would not be broadcast into South East Queensland live unless every seat in the stadium is sold (90% is more practical).
October 23rd 2009 @ 8:40am
agga78 said | October 23rd 2009 @ 8:40am | Report comment
If you want the game to grow in this country SBS is certainly not the station to grow the sport, if the domestic game returned to SBS all the gains football has made in the past 5 years would be for nothing. SBS has ratings in the 4% range, even though SBS is on FTA, no one watches SBS. Plus The way SBS world game program has treated the A league since they lost out in broadcasting matches has been nothing short of disgraceful, the negative bile coming from Les and Fozzihno who seemed to think A league teams should be able to play like Barcalona. You don’t see channel 9 kicking AFL at every opportunity even though they lost the TV rights, they still talk positively about the game, but at SBS the bitterness towards the A league comes on the screen loud and clear. I am happy for the game to stay on Pay tv until a FTA has enough respect for the sport, that they try to promote the code not shoot it down at every opportunity like SBS has done for the past 5 years (what would Johnny Warren think, I think he would be at foxsports if he was alive)
October 23rd 2009 @ 8:49am
andy g said | October 23rd 2009 @ 8:49am | Report comment
The current coverage being offered by Fox is by far the best and most thorough coverage the local game has ever had in this country.
I’ll never forget what channel 7 did to soccer and would be loath to take that risk again, and would be disappointed if a free to air contact meant a less comprehensive coverage, which is almost inevitable.
I get to watch every game played now, which is far better than any commercial network could offer.
October 23rd 2009 @ 9:09am
Vince said | October 23rd 2009 @ 9:09am | Report comment
Back in the days before live EPL on Fox, there used to be a weekly highlights show on FTA to keep fans up to date.
I can’t see SBS being able to afford live games but maybe ia highlights package for the HAL might do the trick?
Personally, I can’t see why people bitch and moan about the cost of Pay TV, it isn’t that much, you just have to prioritise – 1 family dinner at McD a week or Pay TV for the week?
October 23rd 2009 @ 9:14am
Eamonn said | October 23rd 2009 @ 9:14am | Report comment
When did SBS ever show the National Soccer League in a style that ever matched Fox?
One game a weekend on SBS, if you were lucky, and no innovation or imagination in presentation along the way.
Sure the World Cup on SBS has always been great, but when SBS had the local product for years and years they were unable to lift the profile of the domestic game. Not all their fault, but they hardly helped the cause did they?
There traditional repetitive turgid analysis, dismal presentation style, (black suits, thighs spread, and lets bore the pants of the viewers) narrow view of the fans and the place of the game in Australia; and alienation of many sports fans actually hindered the games progress in my view.
and let’s not forget they’ve been knocking the A-League for most of the early years…..so what every game on SBS would be criticised for not being of Barca standard….should get the viewers in in droves. Nice try Jesse, the story is slanted all over SBS website as well.
We need FTA but not sure SBS is the answer…though with Test Cricket on SBS at least Aussies know where the station is these days!
October 23rd 2009 @ 9:23am
AndyRoo said | October 23rd 2009 @ 9:23am | Report comment
If there are 6 games of HAL each week with 5 on Fox with just one on FTA then that will probably be a boon for Fox.
1 game a week whet the appetite but not satisfy it for fans.
October 23rd 2009 @ 9:29am
Midfielder said | October 23rd 2009 @ 9:29am | Report comment
Jes
Just a tho… you should maybe show this thread to Mrs Football & Fozzie … almost total agreement don’t let SBS near …New Football ….
October 23rd 2009 @ 9:49am
Jesse Fink said | October 23rd 2009 @ 9:49am | Report comment
The Bishop writes: “Talking of credibility, a writer who left Foxsports under a cloud and then went to SBS is slagging of foxsports and spruiking his own TV station in an article he gets payed [sic] for. Very credible indeed.”
Um, my friend, what was the cloud? PMG came in and decided to cut the freelance budget. Hence no HTO. An unkind chap from PMG then slagged me off in print because a reader thought the replacement blog, ‘The Whistleblower”, was crap. I responded in kind and told him to shove it.
This is also an article “payed for” by Conversant Media, which last time I checked was independently owned and has nothing to do with SBS whatsoever.
I have also never worked for SBS-TV. Ever. My only work has been for SBS Online.
October 23rd 2009 @ 10:05am
md said | October 23rd 2009 @ 10:05am | Report comment
“I have also never worked for SBS-TV. Ever. My only work has been for SBS Online.”
Righto then. Completely different.
October 23rd 2009 @ 10:13am
mushi said | October 23rd 2009 @ 10:13am | Report comment
That comment was a little strange, pedantry rarely wins the day when talking about ethics and motivation. It makes it appear more motivated by self interest.
October 23rd 2009 @ 9:53am
Pat said | October 23rd 2009 @ 9:53am | Report comment
I agree with a few of the above points:
- Internet distribution is the way of the future, and we should be preparing for that long term reality right now
- The A League needs to find a FTA presence to grow the game
- That FTA “home” must be contractually bound to show live games (or a live game, with the rest on Fox) in a way that doesn’t destroy ticket sales
SBS should have no entitlement to the game. I love its championing of football, but the idea that a public broadcaster with a clear mission to broadcast multicultural content should shell out hundreds of millions of dollars for a mainstream sport is a bit weird and probably unjustifiable to parliament.
Surely ONE digital or someone else will come in, buy one game a week and the Socceroos, and the rest will end up on Fox…