A Malaysian billionaire is apparently in the mix to bid as a partner for the next round of the AFL TV rights for 2012-2016.
As reported in this article in The Age:
“T. Ananda Krishnan, who has extensive satellite television interests in Asia through his Astro network Fetch, has put the idea of a joint bid for sporting rights to the commercial networks, sources have confirmed.”
Foxtel is deemed as the likely loser given that currently the free to air commercial TV networks on sell the rights with AFL endorsement to Foxtel and Austar for a figure of $315.5M over five years.
The article suggests channel 10 is already interested in Fetch’s offer which would see a breakup of the current agreement with channel 7 should channel 10 go it alone.
Fetch would deliver any AFL content through a broadband service which would include other programming.
Importantly they are looming as a challenger to Foxtel/Telstra on many fronts if this quote from the article is accurate:
“Fetch will provide pay TV to internet service providers, such as iiNet, Internode and TPG, so they can offer a bundled deal of unmetered pay TV, fixed-line telephone and broadband internet for a monthly fee, allowing them to compete more effectively compete against Telstra, a 50 per cent shareholder in Foxtel and current holder of the online rights.”
This type of content delivery has its dangers for Fetch given that Australians have been slow to take up digital TV, but there is no doubt the convergence of the internet and TV is getting closer every day.
Delivery of ‘content’ via mobile phone on the other hand is booming with the iPhone almost a part of the daily vernacular with the explosion of apps. [Download The Roar's iPhone app here, if you're interested. Ed.]
What is unequivocal though is the level of competition this brings to the TV rights table for the AFL.
Coupled with the proposed changes to the anti siphoning legislation and the boom in technology, sport is seen as a prime vehicle to bring about mass change in how we fans / consumers watch our sport.
Fetch apparently has deep pockets and, if willing to put in the hard yards, it will need every penny. Australians on mass need ‘plug and play’ technology and time to adjust.
For Foxtel though, this is a massive wake up call. Telstra as part owner certainly won’t stand idly by and allow another player to ride the ‘techno’ wave of internet and mobile phone delivery for sport in Australia.
For the AFL, the timing is ideal given Foxtel were difficult to bring to the table last time without offering more live content and four games a week.
Who knows what Foxtel might have expected from the AFL this time around as far as more games, Monday Night Football, etc. Now potentially they will be scrambling just to hang onto their AFL content.
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March 20th 2010 @ 7:29am
Crosscoder said | March 20th 2010 @ 7:29am | Report comment
An interesting subject,another player in the Pay Tv market ,puts a cat among the pigeons.
Saying that it is also good for the other major codes,and yes I humbly include the NRL.
Richard Hinds(an AFL inclined writer) in today’s SMH was referring to maximum exposure for TV for the NRL,at the same time giving the game a surprising rap .Somewhat related ,when the discussion revolves around, new media players such as Fetch,all mainstream sports should be thankfull with a new entry into the media market.
If the AFL can screw $1.2b on their next deal(18 teams),I would be more than happy if the NRL can extract $1b(16 teams). with the additon of a new player in the media,maybe that can be the outcome, fingers crossed.
FWIW take it or leave it on the SMH article
http://www.smh.com.au/action/printArticle?id=1241867
March 20th 2010 @ 7:57am
Mister Football said | March 20th 2010 @ 7:57am | Report comment
Good article by HInds – given that he normally writes about other sports, we can read it as a neutral, independent analysis of what’s going on with League, or more accurately, what is about to happen, and I think he’s right.
March 20th 2010 @ 7:01pm
Redb said | March 20th 2010 @ 7:01pm | Report comment
Hinds is a Sydney based journalist who rarely gets to see the best of AFL like we do in Melbourne. If all your fed is Swans footy I’m not surprised.
Take it with a grain of salt. FWIW.
maybe Hinds shoud get his butt to Melbourne and watch a big AFL game at the MCG. – nothing comes close from any code.
March 21st 2010 @ 12:09am
Jay said | March 21st 2010 @ 12:09am | Report comment
The NRL is killing it at the moment. Its definatley on the crest of a wave, not seen since a very long time ago.
The AFL is also killing it.
Lets just stop fighting and get rich together!
March 22nd 2010 @ 1:25pm
Dogz R Barkn said | March 22nd 2010 @ 1:25pm | Report comment
Greed is good!!!
March 20th 2010 @ 10:10am
Mick said | March 20th 2010 @ 10:10am | Report comment
I am not to sure how this would play out as most people would have to be on adsl, fibre broadband to rceive an adequate service as from what i am told mobile broadband speeds vary greatly due to congestion issues
When fox had afl dedicated channel (24 hours a day) they charged a monthly sub and fox eventually dropped the channel as they did not get enough subscribers so this billionaire would want to make their monthly subscription cheap
March 22nd 2010 @ 1:33pm
Midfielder said | March 22nd 2010 @ 1:33pm | Report comment
Watched I think it was Lateline Business a good while ago about online TV…
Is massive and growing by the minute.. esentially all your shows are on file and you watch when you want … if live they are streamed live … then stored and at a click you can watch what you want…
Linking demand for your favorite TV shows and some major sports to a phone is well just the way of the future…
The packange is simple charge so much per month and remember for a monthly fee of $ 10.00, every one million packages is 120 million per year..
Say the AFL could be sold to say 2 million phone users … at $ 15.00 per month… that is 360 million per year … now that has to be broken down … the broadcasters need to be paid … line rental etc .. profits for all and for the TV company … having said that 360 million per year is big bucks. and can be cut many ways.. then add the FTA figure …
This is going to be a very interesting look see … Say a bundle package for $ 25.00 you get AFL, Football & Golf …which sport gets what cut of the $ 25.00 ……
Redb … excellent for all of us armchair sports CEO’s to ponder…
March 22nd 2010 @ 2:58pm
Redb said | March 22nd 2010 @ 2:58pm | Report comment
I think the next decade will change sports viewership dramaticially. look at the AFL supercoach fantasy comp it has over 280,000 registered players! and it comes with an iphone app! Got myself an iphone on the weekend – Whoa!
Total transformation likely, foxtel has been twiddling its thumbs with old old technology and will miss out.
Big bucks err comin’ to sports for sure.
March 22nd 2010 @ 3:26pm
Mister Football said | March 22nd 2010 @ 3:26pm | Report comment
That’s a decent number of players in an Australian only game.
The EPL fantasy comp has about 1.5 million, but that’s a world wide comp – very healthy patronage from outside the UK.
March 22nd 2010 @ 4:24pm
Midfielder said | March 22nd 2010 @ 4:24pm | Report comment
You just need to think you are at work …. it’s lunch time… connect your phone to your screen and watch what you want … in the train on the bus….
Actually has the potential; to put FTA out of their current position …. very interesting times ahead..,.
March 22nd 2010 @ 5:46pm
Mister Football said | March 22nd 2010 @ 5:46pm | Report comment
But all the experts say that they expect FTA to have a very long tail, along the lines of AM radio, which survives to this day despite FM radio having appeared 35 years ago.
March 22nd 2010 @ 4:55pm
Justin said | March 22nd 2010 @ 4:55pm | Report comment
I watch sports on live streaming at times. I have a fast broadband package and there is no way I would pay for such a service.
The quality is woeful compared to HDTV or even normal analogue TV.
Sorry but this sort of thing wont take off for another 20 years because our internet is so far behind the likes of our Asian neighbors.
March 22nd 2010 @ 5:03pm
Dogs Of War said | March 22nd 2010 @ 5:03pm | Report comment
Try the free College Basketball streaming in the US. The finals are currently on in HD streaming on the Net, and it’s fabulous. I would pay for that sort of quality. Your typical justin tv or even you tube type quality is not in the same league, but the US shows that it can be down right.
March 22nd 2010 @ 5:12pm
Justin said | March 22nd 2010 @ 5:12pm | Report comment
What site is it streamed on?
March 22nd 2010 @ 8:15pm
Dogs Of War said | March 22nd 2010 @ 8:15pm | Report comment
http://mmod.ncaa.com/
Once you see that quality you will be sold on it.
March 22nd 2010 @ 8:52pm
Justin said | March 22nd 2010 @ 8:52pm | Report comment
Thanks DoW – Certainly a mile better than youtube or justin.tv streams.
From a distance the picture is good but the close ups show the lack of quality IMO, very pixelated picture. That could be a number of things including my Mac (doubt it though as videos are brilliant on here) or my broadband (possible, not the fastest but pretty quick).
If its the only option then I would look to pay for it.
In all honesty though I cant see Fetch taking off in AUS for a while yet. So many people just dont have the technology in their homes for it to be a winner. Yet. Certainly not enough for the AFL to seriously look at them as a provider.
10 years down the track with better resources in most homes then sure they will make things tough for existing operators.
March 22nd 2010 @ 8:59pm
Andyroo said | March 22nd 2010 @ 8:59pm | Report comment
I agree it’s not perfect but the technology is just so much cheaper to roll out. You don’t need your own cable and such, it’s defintely a goer right now for something niche like say foreign language TV.
Until we get the next generation of cable then it will have to be cheaper than fox for people to see it as value, but being cheaper than fox shouldn’t be that hard.
March 23rd 2010 @ 7:22am
Redb said | March 23rd 2010 @ 7:22am | Report comment
“Until we get the next generation of cable then it will have to be cheaper than fox for people to see it as value, but being cheaper than fox shouldn’t be that hard.”
That’s right. Foxtel has taken advantage of its virtual monopoly of the pay TV sports market a little competition will mean us sports fans get a better deal , whether that is with Foxtel or a new player.
As a premium Foxtel subscriber I’m now paying $120 a month and its still SD. To go HD its about $140.
April 8th 2010 @ 4:34pm
Craig(Buzz) said | April 8th 2010 @ 4:34pm | Report comment
This won’t happen,it’s alot of rubbish