- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
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.
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.