TV rights (and wrongs) in the A-League
Roar Rookie I read Adrian Musolino’s article about TV rights with great interest, and it raised in my mind the spectre of our burgeoning A League – and how our next TV rights deal is crucial for its growth.
As the AFL juggernaut is rolled out across the country, and the NRL remains the highest rating sports programs on both free-to-air and Pay TV (according to their head offices somewhat skewed figures), our game lies in a delicate pickle.
Part of the beauty of our game is that it remained relatively unchanged in the past 100 years. Rules are not consistently tweaked and we have not (yet) submitted to the gloabl phenomenon of using TV technology during games.
I am not for one minute suggesting that we go down this path, I believe that the beauty of our game rests in the fact that what we play in the parks with our mates is effectively the same as is what is played at the World Cup.
However the nature of our game (namely 45 minute halves uniterrupted) will always affect our negotiating position in TV rights deals.
Channel Seven has proved in its past how commercial networks treat our game with disdain. If Channel Ten has designs on the A-League, I can just imagine us following Sandra Sully at 11pm, if we are lucky.
We do need free-to-air coverage, and the answer has been staring us in the face for years. SBS was built on our code, and is the only free to air station that will give it a good airing.
The old NSL used to be shown in prime-time on Sunday nights for heavens sake, they would relish the chance to put football in the eyes of the entire population.
Fox does a fantastic job with our game, and together with SBS i am sure that it will help us grow our brand. In conjuction with the Socceroos and World Cups, we can ensure that our game is in the hands of two real ‘football’ stations.
We have done many “wrongs” with our coverage in the past. the next move has to keep us on the path to becoming a solid player in our congested sports market.
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November 26th 2011 @ 8:08am
Stephen Smith said | November 26th 2011 @ 8:08am | Report comment
The old “just give it to SBS ‘cos they know what they’re doing and we’re used to them” argument just doesn’t hold any water in the real world. FFA wants and the clubs need, cash value for the product, and SBS has no money, especially after lashing out millions for the World Cup rights til god knows when. FFA also wants to move away from the perception that its an “ethnic” game watched only on an “ethnic” channel, (I’m not saying I agree by the way), so there’s next to zero chance of the A-League being on SBS.
The article is written from a football romantic piont of view. Don’t tweak the rules of the game, give the coverage back to SBS. Nice sentiments, but the world moves on, and the reality is, football has moved on from SBS.
November 26th 2011 @ 8:37am
bp2 said | November 26th 2011 @ 8:37am | Report comment
I understand that the FFA wants and the clubs need cash. But is it worth say getting an extra 10 million over 5 years (for example) so it goes to a so-called “mainstream” station where it is treated like Channel 7 used to treat football.
The game does not lend itself to what the commercial stations are after ie: advertising dollars. And it will always mean that being on “mainstream” means being on after Letterman and Entertainment Tonight. The question then beggars, would you prefer to be on at 1130pm on Go or 7Mate, or SBS live in Prime Time.
I believe that we jumped way to early when we went to Channel 7 all those years ago. And it is still too early. We need to get maximum prime time exposure right now, to get people knowing about our League. Channels 7, 9 and 10 will only make our product available to insomniacs and people returning home from Nightclubs. Once the whole nation has access, and our crowds start to grow, only then will the “mainstream” stations start to treat us like a viable product.
At the moment they know that the diehards, imsomniacs and clubbers will make them the highest rating shows in that “vital” 11pm – 2pm timeslot, so thats where we will go, rather than live in prime time. The few extra million that we will get from it is okay in the short term, but will just be a band aid solution.
November 26th 2011 @ 9:32am
Swampy said | November 26th 2011 @ 9:32am | Report comment
The answer is the FFA demanding that Foxtel give up it’s exclusive rights and on sell a weekly highlights package to anyone. How many people do you think were introduced to EPL from the weekly highlights package?
Fox keeps the big subscriber content and FFA gets exposure to a wider fan base. Effectively Foxtel would be advertising their package on FTA. Perhaps this is what Foxtel have tried and it is the networks that don’t want to advertise a competitors product…
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November 26th 2011 @ 10:21am
The Cattery said | November 26th 2011 @ 10:21am | Report comment
The AFL managed to up its TV rights deal recently by effectively having two stations show four games at the same time per round.
So a possible strategy for the FFA, and you’d think Buckley would be thinking along similar lines, is to allow Fox the full regime of A-League games, all exclusively live, while allowing an FTA station to pick up a match of the round game on delay. Buckley would have to convince Fox that that’s in the best interests of everyone, including them, while snaffling some extra coin from the FTA broadcaster.
The advantages are that Fox retain their exclusivity to all live games, the game gets exposure on FTA, but since it’s on delay, the commercial station can present the match of the round in a neat hour package, stuffed with a few ads.
As I said in an earlier post, you have to give value to the broadcasters, you have to let them have a bit of a win, you need to be willing to sell a little bit of your soul.
November 26th 2011 @ 11:53am
AGO74 said | November 26th 2011 @ 11:53am | Report comment
Hard to argue with your points cattery.
November 26th 2011 @ 10:40am
asanchez said | November 26th 2011 @ 10:40am | Report comment
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.
Regardless if SBS are the best option for the A-league in terms of money, perception, reach, whatever, they are still the only FTA channel, possibly along with the ABC that would show the games in a good timeslot, even if they pay peanuts for the rights.
And they would market and advertise the he’ll out of it. I’m not a pro-SBS man by any means, but these are just the facts!!
CH 7,9,10 would only give us what we need, which is primetime games, if they paid a ridiculous amount for those rights. Which to be honest, I can’t see happening anyway. What I can see happening though, especially if we go chasing these channels for coverage, and virtually give the rights away for nothing is what is happening to the SUPER 15′S show on channel 9 starting at 1am, or the NBL games starting at 11pm on ONE, which probably has marginally better reach and viewers than Foxtel.
Also the ‘Nobody screws Soccer like 7′ slogan is never too far away from my mind. We all know what happened there.
FTA isn’t the golden child many people think it is. It could do damage than good for the game.
I think long term, say the next rights deal in 2018, if the league keeps growing we might see 7,9 & 10 execs scrambling to get the rights. But I think right now, we aren’t ready for FTA. Take the money from Foxtel, hopefully more for exclusivity, build up the league, cash up the clubs, bring in better players, build infrastructure, academies etc.
November 26th 2011 @ 11:30am
jamesb said | November 26th 2011 @ 11:30am | Report comment
theres other platforms to consider in the next tv rights deal.
such as online and phone. In that SBS forum that Buckley was a part of 6 months ago, he did mention that he wanted the game to be avaialble in many platforms, such as tablet devices.
November 26th 2011 @ 11:52am
AGO74 said | November 26th 2011 @ 11:52am | Report comment
I think you are right. I read elsewhere (smh perhaps?) that a big part of FFA/ a-league promotion this season has
been to 14-24 year olds and it is in these fields you mention that this age group operate in more and more versus the traditional means of tv etc.
November 26th 2011 @ 12:49pm
Midfielder said | November 26th 2011 @ 12:49pm | Report comment
The big money will be from;- Pay, Online & Applications…. whoever is chosen as the FTA broadcaster the price paid will not be huge… but broadcast times will be embedded into the contract… which will not be that hard as most of the A-L is played outside the AFL & NRL seasons…
The FTA will be to assist Fox … Fox actually understand this….. Fox want a limited FTA deal it helps promote their product…
November 26th 2011 @ 2:35pm
Midfielder said | November 26th 2011 @ 2:35pm | Report comment
Some very interesting facts in a smh article today… I will copy part of a much larger article below to highlight my point…
“”"”Let’s talk facts. Television ratings – up 80 per cent. Crowds – up 49 per cent. Membership – up 17 per cent. Website traffic – up 30 per cent. Early days, perhaps, but they’re still good numbers. It’s great timing, given negotiations for the next TV deal are due to start early next year. ”Our partners have never been more satisfied with the work we’re doing to bring the TV deal to life,” Gorman says.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/a-league/clever-strategies-help-turn-aleague-around-20111125-1nz0r.html#ixzz1emJ7Bs5p “”"”
November 26th 2011 @ 4:50pm
Whites said | November 26th 2011 @ 4:50pm | Report comment
Just to make one thing perfectly clear so that nobody get’s there hopes up. There will be no live A-League on free to air TV. However, there will probably be a highlights package on free to air.