How important is Asia in FFA’s next media deal?
Roar Guru By Midfielder, 19 Jul 2012 The Crowd is a Roar Guru
There has been a lot of speculation about Football Federation Australia’s next media rights deal.
My original forecast was $100 million. I had reduced this to $40 to $60 million essentially because World Cup Qualifiers are controlled by the AFC and the FFA will only get a figure of around $1 million per game.
With the arrival of the Western Sydney Wanderers (WSW) in the A-League, I revised my forecast to $50 to $70 million.
The Wanderers are going from strength to strength. On my own anecdotal evidence, more and more people are excited about a team in Sydney’s west.
WSW seem to have done what many considered impossible – they appear to be winning over the former NSL teams in south western Sydney and appealing to the new football people of the Hills.
Right now, the European Champions League is very popular with football fans throughout Australia.
Also, the strength of football and in particular the European Champions League in Asia is also well known. But what a lot of people don’t know is how popular the Asian Champions League is becoming.
A recent article on Yahoo Seven illustrated this growth in popularity.
The article reported that “AFC Champions League audiences for the group and round of 16 stage matches are up 15 percent to 155 million across Australia, China Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)”.
The growth is simply staggering. Moreover, Australian teams are playing and have a good chance of success. At this rate of growth, the ACL could start to challenge the ECL in ratings and money.
The article also notes that “(v)iewing figures across Australia, China, Japan, Korea and the Middle East have seen significant increases over the competition’s showing during 2011, with cumulative audiences rising by an impressive 46 percent”.
This ratings figure by any standard is impressive.
Other interesting parts of the article: “The cumulative TV audience in China for the 2012 AFC Champions League is already 47 million ahead of the 58 million total achieved for the whole competition in 2011″.
“The competition’s popularity among TV viewers is also reflected in Japan, where the AFC Champions League garnered 86.37 million viewers for the Group Stage, an increase of 43 percent over figures at the same stage in 2011″.
At some point in time Australian media will no longer be able to ignore these figures.
I feel this incredible jump in ratings for the ACL has caught everyone off guard and many don’t even know it. The Japanese figure of 86.37 million for a single round of the ACL group qualifying stage is staggering. The Chinese figure at this stage is up to 47 million people.
What value then is the ACL worth, and with such a huge Asian audience, what must this be worth to our next media deal. Asian viewers do not watch Australian TV or our ads but a competition growing at this rate sooner or later will get football people to watch.
I stated earlier that I believe the Wanderers are winning over the NSL folk from south western Sydney and from north western Sydney. Many of these people would be fans of the ECL. Sooner or later, they will want to watch the ACL too.
It’s a football competition that is easy to understand and more importantly, a team from your own country is represented.
How this will impact upon the A-League ratings and build an interest in qualifying for the ACL is still up in the air. However, with growth such as that illustrated above, the future looks bright for the A-League and football in Australia
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July 19th 2012 @ 1:05pm
dave said | July 19th 2012 @ 1:05pm | Report comment
great artical the population in asia will make football a very big game in australia, with the asian cup in oz next all is looking good for football in australia.
July 19th 2012 @ 1:23pm
Futbanous said | July 19th 2012 @ 1:23pm | Report comment
Drogba/Anelka etc can do the ACL’s standing no harm. If its to be mentioned in the same breathe as the ECL though the prize money has to be seriously increased. Right now its a paupers comp in comparison.
At this stage I can’t see any impact,but if big stars continue to come to Asia & they drastically increase the prize money I can see it catching the eye of media cross Asia eventually.
Lets face it it still appears that the Japanese(the biggest comp in Asia) for one consider the J-League more important currently. In Europe no big club such as Barca,ManU etc would take the EPL or La Liga above winning the European Champions League.
July 19th 2012 @ 1:29pm
Midfielder said | July 19th 2012 @ 1:29pm | Report comment
Fut
The ACL is not much older than the A-League…
My original article as I posted below shows a 2011 link and a 2012 link almost twelve months apart… the growth over the last two years is amazing…
July 19th 2012 @ 1:25pm
Brendo said | July 19th 2012 @ 1:25pm | Report comment
I could be wrong and will be very happy if I am but isn’t the media rights for the ACL part of the rights package that Bin Hammam sold off to World Sport Group for $1bn back in 2009 and gives them the rights to the ACL out to 2020.
We may see some incremental increase in prizemoney but I don’t think the ACL will play a part on the FFA Media deal unless opf course you are speculatign that the foreign interest in the A-league may help drive up the media rights but that is a long shot for the next year.
July 19th 2012 @ 1:27pm
Midfielder said | July 19th 2012 @ 1:27pm | Report comment
Thanks mods you re wrote the article better than me…
However you left off a bit…
There was a 2011 link http://www.asiamediajournal.com/pressrelease.php?id=2816
Plus the link in the article
When you compare the two the growth is just amazing…
July 19th 2012 @ 1:34pm
Midfielder said | July 19th 2012 @ 1:34pm | Report comment
Some time ago I posted an article on the Roar about we are now in the Asian century but aside from a few key issues the Australian media ignore Asia much like it ignores football…. Seeing what happens in Holland as more important than India as an example.
The match against Japan had over 500 million viewers in Asia according to SBS but this fact never even made a mention in the mainstream media. My take is you cannot say the entire media is out to hide football… its more the claims seem so untrue when looked at few our mainstream media that they think those hardcore soccer nuts are at it again… I remember once arguing with a guy for maybe 20 years that the WC out rated the Olympics by almost double … when he found out I was right he said the claim seems so untrue..
Its like our media and those that write history keep re writing the same stories …. the grand final that Salter (in RL) played with a broken jaw…
Whatever happens it just does not get the respect it warrants … have football administers been that poor.. the journey to the 74 WC is a story in itself but is largely unknown …
Using my Asian context and the media there has been some talk lately that outside SBS if you watched Australia TV or listen to Australian radio we were living in an almost purely ANGLO country [I am ANGLO and can see the problem myself] … I was looking at the ACL TV ratings the other day and wondered how this goes so un reported in Australia when the Commonwealth games or Tennis is … maybe because its football ..
That 155 million rating in 2011 for a single round of the ACL & the 200 million in 2012 are more than an AFL season…
July 19th 2012 @ 4:41pm
Bondy said | July 19th 2012 @ 4:41pm | Report comment
Good post Mid,
I see the point with your mate Olympics vs World Cup. In relation to Asia I cant call myself an expert but their taking the sport far more seriously out that way now, how many did what Lucas has done ten year ago probably not many in going out to Asia or even look at Anelka and Drogba up in China with Joel the more invested the more returned, can anyone say they”Asia” were spending this type of money 10 years ago definately not, it’s almost no suprise to football supporters with the amount of capital invested its staggering to think Drogba left Chelsea for more money in China.
You should write more often Mid you’ve got your finger on the pulse.
July 19th 2012 @ 1:44pm
Tigranes said | July 19th 2012 @ 1:44pm | Report comment
Midfielder – I thought the HAL final gets 100M throughout Asia?? Therefore these figures are not so surprising.
If you watch NRL, then Im sure you will see plenty of Islander and Aboriginal boys playing and Im not sure how they would be considered Anglo – Im not sure how you say that Australia is purely Anglo – there are plenty of newsreaders of non-Anglo extraction on FTA in Australia.
I dont think the media ignores football as much as you say, the bif europan/english games are well reported on in the news – I remember seeing on ABC News when Burnley Clarots got promoted to EPL – I think what you’re getting at is that Australian media tends not to follow Asian football – which begs the question, do many Australians have a massive interest in Indian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese leagues?
July 19th 2012 @ 2:32pm
The (not so) Special One said | July 19th 2012 @ 2:32pm | Report comment
Tigranses – On what channels are these non Anglo newsreaders? 7 – Chris Bath, 9 – Peter Overton 10 – Sandra Sully ABC – Juanita Phillips (sorry I don’t know who they are interstate). Only on SBS is there a non-Anglo newsreader.
July 19th 2012 @ 2:42pm
Rob Gremio said | July 19th 2012 @ 2:42pm | Report comment
Carina Carvalho used to read the news on the ABC here in Perth. Now she is on ABC News Breakfast on ABC News 24. She is definitely non-Anglo.
July 19th 2012 @ 2:53pm
Midfielder said | July 19th 2012 @ 2:53pm | Report comment
Tigranes
I am not talking about the NRL …
My media comment was if you watched mainstream Australia TV … its mainly ANGLO … in news we hardly cover Asia except major stories…
That the NRL has islanders & Aboriginal players more reflects Australian sport which across most sports has people from all races…
The biggest sporting events in Asia is the Asian Cup and the Asian games & now the Asian Champions League …. can you ever think of these events being covered for more than say the odd 30 seconds…
Our mainstream media seem locked into a delivery pattern which IMO goes beyond sport … almost to scared to start something new…
Ch 10 … new shows the Project, Shire, Luara Bingle … Ch 9 Packers War etc … get the idea…
Where is the show about the building of the Snowy River scheme by immigrants … where is the story of the 74 Socceroo side and what it did to get to the WC…
July 19th 2012 @ 11:10pm
heart of sydney said | July 19th 2012 @ 11:10pm | Report comment
>.except major stories…
ie.hordes of illegal immigrants are queuing up for transport to a girt by sea wide tanned land.
July 19th 2012 @ 11:26pm
Fussball ist unser leben said | July 19th 2012 @ 11:26pm | Report comment
“hordes of illegal immigrants are queuing up for transport to a girt by sea wide tanned land”
Don’t flatter yourself “heart of sydney” and don’t believe the rubbish you hear in the tabloid news.
For example, in 2008, 42 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced from their homes and around 1 million applied of asylum all over the world.
From the 1 million human beings, who applied for asylum, not even 5k came to Australia.
However, France took 36k, USA took 50k & even South Africa took 210k.
So, don’t kid yourself that “hordes” of people want to come to Strayia.
July 19th 2012 @ 11:33pm
heart of sydney said | July 19th 2012 @ 11:33pm | Report comment
It was a joke Joyce. Or to put it another way facetious.
July 20th 2012 @ 11:19am
Tigranes said | July 20th 2012 @ 11:19am | Report comment
Fussball
Im sure of the 210K who went to South Africa, a substantial number would have come to Australia if they could. At least they would be less likely to be subject to xenophobia and more likely to get a job.
But for the majority of these, South Africa is a short stroll across the border. Australia is a island country not close to too many refugee spots.
July 19th 2012 @ 5:13pm
Bondy said | July 19th 2012 @ 5:13pm | Report comment
I agree with Midfielder we are predominately white in this coutnry in the mind and i’m an Anglo so much so my forefathers obtained the first pastural leases out at Camden in 1800,if you cant understand that football gets left out in this counrty then,we concentrate on four sports in this country,have you ever thought to yourself whats the highest participated youth sport in this country doing on cable tv,whats elyyse perry really known for in this country its not for football.
July 19th 2012 @ 2:12pm
Futbanous said | July 19th 2012 @ 2:12pm | Report comment
Its mainly a time & growth thing. I remember when the ECL was in its early years the English media considered the FA cup more important than any European comp. The early signs of the ACL are that it will improve,simply because Asian Football overall is getting stronger collectively.
When the media see an opportunity they’ll jump ,but you can’t put their arm behind their back & force the issue.
July 19th 2012 @ 2:16pm
Futbanous said | July 19th 2012 @ 2:16pm | Report comment
Just on the sort of example to make the media jump up,take notice.
The Roar next year are drawn with Shanghai Shenhua in the ACL with Drogba/Anelka on show.
July 19th 2012 @ 3:43pm
Midfielder said | July 19th 2012 @ 3:43pm | Report comment
Fut
Will be interesting to see the media when Drogba/Anelka are on show in Brisbane…
July 19th 2012 @ 2:31pm
Fussball ist unser leben said | July 19th 2012 @ 2:31pm | Report comment
Nice work, Middy.
There are two major implications & benefits for HAL clubs from this surge in football passion in Asia.
1. HAL clubs, who are involved with the AFC Asian Champions League, must start:
a) promoting the matches as showcasing the cream of Asian Football;
b) promoting the competition to corporate Australia, who stand to gain massive exposure for their company brand/product through ACL shirt naming rights, etc.
2. The FFA/HAL must leverage our attractive time-zone & to make the HAL the best quality football competition in the region. Whilst the Australian TV market is important, 1 million people watching AFL or NRL matches in Australia is insignificant compared to the number of potential people HAL can be sold to in Asian markets.
I’d love for the FFA to sell every HAL match directly to the tech-savvy Asian markets via a committed HAL.com.au website (as the NFL does for American football).
With the volume of football fans in Asia, even charging a fee of $1 per game – for 140 matches – it is not unreasonable to forecast the Asian broadcast rights for HAL will dwarf the Australian broadcast rights for HAL.
Pre-tech revolution, parochial & insular products & services have a captive audience in Australia & have gained large market share.
So, AFL & NRL have large TV viewing-markets in their “home States” – VIC, SA & WA (AFL) and NSW & QLD (NRL) – but have insignificant viewing audiences outside their home States. Their viewer growth opportunities will follow population growth and, when adjusted for inflation, this growth is close to ZERO.
But, with HAL, we have a global product. And, once global barriers are removed, every corporation knows there is much more revenue to be made by selling your product OUTSIDE Australia than simply selling within Australia.
In Australian sport, a TV viewing audience of 2.5 million is considered huge – i.e. just over 10% of the Aussie population. In Asia, an audience of 2.5 million amounts to 0.06% of the Asian population!
July 19th 2012 @ 3:25pm
Brendo said | July 19th 2012 @ 3:25pm | Report comment
“I’d love for the FFA to sell every HAL match directly to the tech-savvy Asian markets via a committed HAL.com.au website (as the NFL does for American football)”
I agree but do the FFA have the resources to add the production values that would be needed. At this stage I can see them choosing a exclusivity deal with Foxtel and the cash over taking a punt on the growth of the internet channel.
IMO this is the wrong move. The Internet channel is growing every year and talkign the steps now to tale ownership of publishing to the net will reap huge rewards for the sport here in Australia.
July 19th 2012 @ 3:58pm
Fussball ist unser leben said | July 19th 2012 @ 3:58pm | Report comment
Brendo
Your point about production capabilities is very valid.
I’d like to think the FFA’s negotiators could come up with an arrangement with HAL broadcast partners (e.g. Fox Sports, SBS, Al Jazeera, etc.) – that is beneficial to all parties – whereby the FFA retains rights to on-sell the locally-produced HAL product into o/s markets.
It could even be on a “profit-share” basis – perhaps, on-line revenue from overseas sales is split FFA (50-80%) : production house (50-20%)?
I’ve got no idea what it costs to produce a football broadcast at HAL venues but, perhaps, there’s an opportunity for a production company, who is not interested in broadcasting, to simply offer production services to the FFA & the FFA takes on the role of broadcasting all content – within & outside Australia via on-line channels.
Lots of exciting opportunities await!
July 19th 2012 @ 5:28pm
Brend0 said | July 19th 2012 @ 5:28pm | Report comment
Problem is people mix up Broadcasting and Production (as often the big TV companies do both for sport)
Production
The FFA does not need to do this. They can hire or partner with a production company/s in each state to record and produce the games. As you say they could also use the Foxtel Feed (which I am sure Foxtel would want payment for via Cash or a reduction in TV rights)
Broadcasting
To stream the matches online will take significant investment in hardware and comms. This is the area that I think the FFA needs to take a punt and invest in themselves. They could of course sell these rights to a Telstra like the AFL did but this is where the opportunity lays and the FFA could lead Australia in this space.
July 19th 2012 @ 11:31pm
heart of sydney said | July 19th 2012 @ 11:31pm | Report comment
They could probably set the onlinechannel as a shopping channel for you know like Westfield on non match days
July 21st 2012 @ 11:29am
Harry said | July 21st 2012 @ 11:29am | Report comment
BRILLIANT IDEA! FRANK LOWY SHOULD BE TAKING NOTICE BUT OF COURSE HE WON’T BE AS HE THINKS HE KNOWS EVERYTHING.
July 19th 2012 @ 6:06pm
Fussball ist unser leben said | July 19th 2012 @ 6:06pm | Report comment
Brendo
My tech knowledge is pretty much limited to the depth of “point & click”, but does it really take significant investment to set up the infrastructure to stream matches online?
I know FFV has been providing live streaming of Victorian Premier League matches for some time (http://www.footballfedvic.com.au/index.php?id=vpl_live) & I can’t imagine FFV would have invested a lot of money in tech infrastructure.
Also, only last week, the FFA provided an online stream of JPN WNT v AUS WNT, live from Tokyo, using the ABCTv’s production.
July 19th 2012 @ 9:07pm
Brend0 said | July 19th 2012 @ 9:07pm | Report comment
I am no expert either Fuss but what I do know is it would depend on the format and what you are offering. For example a store and send approach where subscribers could log on at anytime and watch a game would require significant bandwidth (think video on demand).
However a broadcast approach using multicast technology is a much cheaper option and requires less bandwidth. This is the technology that your example above are using.
It might be possible to get a small scale site up and running, using broadcast technology and then upgrade bandwidth and move to on demand technology as volume grows. Significant just means that they would need to invest to make it happen. Does the FFA have the appetite to take this on, I am not sure?
July 19th 2012 @ 3:34pm
Hoof said | July 19th 2012 @ 3:34pm | Report comment
Fuss, just on your first point of the ACL being the cream of Asian football, there is a real opportunity for clubs to promote ACL games as showcasing the cream of the world’s footballing talent. At the moment, players such as Drogba, Anelka, Barrios, Kanoute, Yakubu and Seydou Keita are playing in China alone. If some of those names came up against either Melbourne club, they’d be worth the flight from Hobart, which I normally only make for derby games.
July 19th 2012 @ 3:46pm
Fussball ist unser leben said | July 19th 2012 @ 3:46pm | Report comment
Beautifully put, Hoof. I was trying to gather a list of those big names – so, thanks for putting it out there!
Imagine the AUS media frenzy if/when Didier comes town!
July 19th 2012 @ 11:37pm
heart of sydney said | July 19th 2012 @ 11:37pm | Report comment
The Hun would only get excited if he said he liked watching AFL and was a closet magpies supporter.
July 19th 2012 @ 8:59pm
Stevo said | July 19th 2012 @ 8:59pm | Report comment
Hoof, in years gone by we had to wait for ManU or Chelsea to travel to our shores to catch a glimpse of big names. Now, as you say, it could happen much more simply as Asian $$$$ attract these same stars and all of a sudden HAL teams are hosting these names in Oz for ACL games. What a delicious opportunity awaits us – and yeah, if Drogba et al turned up in Melbourne to play MV I’d go to the game and support ….. football!!!
July 19th 2012 @ 11:18pm
heart of sydney said | July 19th 2012 @ 11:18pm | Report comment
>>a) promoting the matches as showcasing the cream of Asian Football;
>>b) promoting the competition to corporate Australia, who stand to gain massive exposure for their company brand
>>product through ACL shirt naming rights, etc.
That fat slug of a miner from Queensland whassisname? Palmer (and his five lovely daughters) want to flog off stuff to Asia so he would be interested in sponsoring an Australian football side wouldn’t he? Oh wait…
July 24th 2012 @ 4:59pm
Brian said | July 24th 2012 @ 4:59pm | Report comment
The drawback is we were not good enough to make the Olympics
July 19th 2012 @ 2:38pm
tell em his dreaming said | July 19th 2012 @ 2:38pm | Report comment
“At this rate of growth, the ACL could start to challenge the ECL in ratings and money.”
TURN IT UP!
The ECL hand out $900m EVERY year in prize money.
The ACL hands out less than $9m in yearly prize money.
Sure Asia will only get stronger/richer but NOT in your or your grand-kids lifetime.
July 19th 2012 @ 3:05pm
Midfielder said | July 19th 2012 @ 3:05pm | Report comment
Tell
The ACL is very young…
Europe is broke
Asian is not broke and has lots of money
Asia has 4.6 billion people with the middle class growing hugely each year …
Europe has 500 million people….
Come back in 20 years and lets see…
July 19th 2012 @ 4:39pm
Fussball ist unser leben said | July 19th 2012 @ 4:39pm | Report comment
“Sure Asia will only get stronger/richer but NOT in your or your grand-kids lifetime.”
“tell em his dreaming” … Please tell me you’re kidding? No one can be so unaware of what’s going on overseas?
Here’s something for you to teach your grandchildren ..
1. The number of mobile phone subscribers in India (May 2012) has reached 929.37 million
2. In the prior month of April, 8 million new connections were added
Data: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)
Further reading: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Mobiles-and-PDAs/Indias-mobile-subscriber-base-rises-to-92937_10049.html
So, right now, India has more mobile phone subscribers than the whole population of Europe!
And, that’s only ONE Asian country. Add China, Japan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran, etc. etc. and Asia simply dwarfs Europe in terms of number of tech-savvy customers.
July 19th 2012 @ 4:47pm
Johnno said | July 19th 2012 @ 4:47pm | Report comment
The world fuss has almost 7 billion people. And the Asia continent has with various estimates and stats they vary anywhere between 3.8-4.1 billion. Nearly 60% of the world’s population. Europe or south america have no where near that amount as shown by your mobile phone subscription in India.
-Australia is in the Asia-pacific, and we will see the riches of that as Asia’s middle class grows in numbers from 2012-2050.
-The signings of Drogba and Anelka are examples of more of what is to come. Uzbekistan to with one off there clubs FC Bunyodkor are big spenders. They signed Rivaldo for a while, and for a while Scolari was the head coach.
-Asia is getting richer not poor fuss just some people still in Australia seem to live in the 1950′s , and talk like they live in the 1950′s very out of touch.