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“Is the #aleague (A-League) GF going to be broadcast, or is it one of those pay-only things?” tweeted a Brisbane resident. There, in a simple tweet, is the reason why the A-League (and other codes shown exclusively on Foxtel) remains hamstrung in this country.
Yes, the A-League wouldn’t exist without Fox Sports and the reported $21 million per annum they pay the FFA for the rights to the A-League, Asian Champions League and Socceroos matches. It is the lifeblood that has given the league life.
But now, as the league desperately seeks to expand its supporter base and raise awareness at a time of stagnation, Fox Sports’ limited reach of, reportedly, 30 per cent of Australia (smaller when you eliminate those with Foxtel but without Fox Sports) can no longer help the league grow at a sufficient rate.
Consider the statistics in the latest Repucom’s Football Benchmarking report, which analyses football clubs’ exposure through various forms of media.
According to The Age article on the report: “The AFL was the most-watched football competition on Australian television last year, with an average of 14.64 million viewers per club.
“That compares with 13.81 million viewers per club for the NRL. A-League soccer clubs average 1.5 million viewers per season, and Super Rugby clubs just 958,000.”
The report continues: “Almost 28 million viewers tuned in to Collingwood (AFL) matches on TV last season.
“That’s more than the total Australian audience of every A-League and Super Rugby match combined.”
Those numbers are staggering and shine the spotlight on the severe limitations of a Fox Sports broadcast deal. Is it any wonder A-League crowds stagnate and drop, with prospective fans, like the aforementioned Brisbane twitterer, shutout unless they own a Foxtel box?
Those crowd averages, according to the report, read like this: “The AFL averaged 918,000 spectators per club last season, The average NRL attendance was 436,000 spectators, less than half that of an AFL club.
“The A-League averaged 297,000 spectators per club, and the Super 15 competition 166,000.”
A free-to-air deal could be a poisoned chalice for the A-League. As Super Rugby fans can confirm, with their series’ free-to-air highlights package buried in the wee hours of the morning by Channel 9, the commercial networks won’t necessarily treat the code with the respect and attention that Fox Sports affords it.
As anyone who remembers Channel 7’s coverage of the Socceroos and the NSL in the Soccer Australia era can testify, Australian free-to-air channels can butcher sports hosting like no one else.
And is the A-League really ready for free-to-air? How will a match at Skilled Park, with its cow paddock-like pitch hosting a match totally devoid of atmosphere, come across to new football watchers on free-to-air television? And how will diehard A-League fans cope going from the live and uninterrupted coverage of Fox Sports to the delays and commercials of free-to-air?
But that is the price the diehards may have to pay to see the league become more commercially viable, with the gospel spreading to attract new fans – and the same applies to Super Rugby, the Big Bash League (Cricket Australia’s revamped Twenty20 competition) and any other sport covered exclusively on Foxtel. It is the only way to significantly grow, as those above numbers testify.
At a minimum the league needs a highlights package on free-to-air, even if it’s only on SBS or ABC. No Australian sport can prosper while hidden on Fox Sports.
In an ideal world the next television deal, which will kick-off in mid-2013, will see a free-to-air component added to a renewed Fox Sports deal (Fox Sports are keen on extending the deal, particularly with the loss of Socceroos World Cup qualifiers to free-to-air thanks to the new anti-siphoning laws).
Will Fox Sports play ball and happily sign off the odd match to a free-to-air network? Or, more importantly, is there a free-to-air network interested in the A-League, other than sports channel ONE HD, whose future remains up in the air as Channel 10 undergoes a significant strategic review?
This will perhaps be the greatest test of the FFA since the 2022 World Cup bid, and a stern test of the A-League’s financial worth, as it seeks to venture beyond its marriage with Fox.
FFA, this is a non-negotiable requirement of the next television deal.
Follow Adrian on twitter @AdrianMusolino