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Perth's Wayne Shroj (22) and Sydney's Beau Busch go for the ball during Round 16 of the Hyundai A-League between Sydney FC and Perth Glory in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2008. Perth won 4-1. AAP Image/Jenny Evans
It was only when I started scribbling some notes for this week’s column that I realised the errors of my timing. For some time, I have suggested on The Roar that a massive opportunity sits as yet untested for both Football Federation Australia and Cricket Australia.
And I thought this week was time to expand on this idea some more. Except that my timing, in the end, was a bit off.
You see, the week I’ve chosen to write about an idea for increasing the exposure of the A-League (and the domestic Twenty20 cricket “Big Bash”) happens to coincide with the only weekend this side of Christmas where there are no A-League games scheduled.
Irony works in truly funny ways sometimes …
In my humble opinion, FFA and CA have an opportunity to cash in on some now-vacant major prime-time free-to-air television real estate.
With footy fans around the country now scratching their heads about what to watch on a Friday night, with the AFL and NRL competitions run and won, FFA and/or CA should be moving heaven and earth to grab these timeslots.
Surely, a live Friday night A-League or T20 Big Bash game on one of the free-to-air channels is going to be an infinitely better choice for the sports fan than Better Homes &; Gardens, or the inevitable re-runs of Police Academy movies.
In the case of both sports, this Friday night timeslot would be the ideal introduction to viewers in the free-to-air markets to competitions that they have never seen before.
In the case of the A-League, FFA Chairman Frank Lowy has made no secret of his desire to see the A-League on Australian free-to-air television.
The A-League markets itself as being a great summer sport alternative, and makes good use of the timeslots available to them, with every game being broadcast live on Fox Sports.
Further, the A-League has traditionally made good use of the holiday periods too, with a game scheduled this season on December 23, plus two more on Boxing Day evening. Games on New Year’s Eve and Australia Day are also locked in for this season, as has been the case in years previous.
There’s no doubt the A-League is conscious of catering for the both the live crowd, and the viewing public. A live Friday night game on a free-to-air network can only enhance this.
The domestic Twenty20 Cricket competition, the Big Bash, has been around for a similar period to that of the A-League, and has slowly grown in that time.
Where once it was a simple three-game round robin with a one-off Final, this season’s Big Bash series has expanded to a draw where each team plays each other once, a preliminary final, and a Final.
This season’s competition will feature games scheduled for most nights of the week, and runs from December 28 to January 23.
For CA to take advantage of this free-to-air television opportunity, a major re-work of the schedule would be required. But that shouldn’t kill the idea.
Already, ONE HD’s broadcasts of the Indian Premier League, and the recent Champions League T20 – won by NSW in October – has shown that there is already a market for this format of the game on free-to-air TV.
Additionally, Friday night Big Bash games have also been among the highest-viewed Pay-TV programs of the week.
If there needed any more convincing of the merits, the Channel 9 broadcasts of pointless T20 Internationals, and the even-more pointless All-Star game to begin the summer (such as this coming Sunday night), have always been traditionally high rating programmes.
So, if the idea seems logical, what could bring it undone? Well, existing broadcasting contracts with Fox Sports, for one. A bloody big “one”, actually.
Both the FFA and CA have existing deals with Fox through to around 2013, and in the case of CA, this deal was only just renewed at the start of this cricket season.
For either body to take advantage of this vacant Friday night timeslot, some very careful and very clever renegotiations will have to eventuate.
Alternatively, Fox Sports could on-sell the Friday night game to a free-to-air network. Realistically, this is probably the more doable.
Either way, Fox aren’t going to give it up for nothing.
I should add that I am only talking about the Friday night games here; not the entire competition broadcasts (as good as that would be). I’m very aware of the fact that without Fox Sports, neither competition would have come to life as they have.
Certainly in the case of the A-League, it wouldn’t exist at all without Fox Sports buying the broadcast rights.
It just seems to me that this is too good an opportunity not to explore.
On the surface, it looks like a genuine win-win-win-win situation, for both FFA and/or CA, for the free-to-air network bold enough to try it, definitely for the footy fans enduring Better Homes & Gardens, and maybe even for Fox Sports on-selling broadcast rights.
Who knows what such a move might do for either completion? Who knows how many new viewers will start enjoying something they’ve previously never seen? Who knows how much new advertising revenue might materialise? Questions that all deserve an answer.
The first competition to tackle Friday nights in summer might just secure their immediate future. And the network that takes the punt, I suspect they’ll end up with a summer ratings bonanza.