Make no mistake, the broadcasting deal the AFL has sold for rights to all its content for the next five years, is bigger than Ben Hur.
The executive of the AFL has delivered a sports broadcasting package to rival the biggest in the world when scaled appropriately.
$1.253 billion over five years equates to just over $250 million per year.
When held up against broadcast deals of the two biggest domestic leagues in the world on a per capita basis, it compares rather favourably.
It is well known that the NFL in the US attracts a $3 billion price tag per season for its television rights. Monday night football alone attracts a $1b value.
With close to 310 million inhabitants, the US has a population 14 times the size of Australia’s 22 million.
Dividing $3 billion dollars by 14 gives us a deal of roughly $215 million per year for the equivalent population that Australia has. That, in a market where American football is just about the number one sport in the country.
As we know the AFL is probably third and in many parts, the fourth football code in two of Australia’s most populous areas.
Nevertheless, broadcasters have seen reason to pay a magnificent sum for the privilege of being able to show it live into markets where ratings might not always be winning their slot.
If we cast our eyes from the US across the Atlantic to the UK, the English Premier League television rights alone, for the period 2010 to 2013, were purchased for £1.782 billion by combination of Sky Sports, Setanta (now ESPN) and the BBC.
At today’s exchange rate of $1.527 for £1.00, means that Premier League rights cost $907m per year.
Breaking it down by population of the UK where Sky Sports subscriptions can be sold, that equals $302.3m per year – trumping both the AFL and NFL.
However, what we also have to consider is that these rights take in the fact that they can be on sold for much more to the rest of the world.
Promoted as “The Greatest Show On Earth”, the Premier League is the world’s most watched sporting league, being broadcast to a potential audience of over 600 million people in 202 countries.
Of course, statistics can be written and skewed anyway you like. This is merely to provide, a positive light and perspective on the size of the agreement, when compared to the size of the population, the agreement takes in and similar arrangements in the rest of the world.
Whatever you think of the game of Australian football, the actions or policies of its governing body, right now as sports lovers, we must all recognise and applaud Andrew Demetriou and his team for selling us live sport at what is an astonishing price.
Over to you Mr Gallop.
BigAl
Guest
No you didn't forget Denmark - you mentioned Denmark - mmmmhh . . . 4 or 5 posts back!
Sam el Perro
Roar Pro
It's a fantastic achievement. Never said it wasn't. Doesn't change the fact that the article is an innumerate fantasy. "Dividing $3 billion dollars by 14 gives us a deal of roughly $215 million per year for the equivalent population that Australia has." Riiiiiiiiiiight. Fanastic achievement, yes? Comparable to the EPL or NFL as the article claims? Not on your nelly. It seems that pointing that out has turned me into an AFL hater.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
One thing is for sure, you can search and search, but you won't find a country anywhere in the world with Australia's population that has a football broadcasting deal that betters the one the AFL just negotiated. As someone has mentioned, even France, with three times the population of Australia, and a top six soccer league, has a broadcasting deal roughly on par with the AFL. That's a pretty good achievement on the part of the AFL - what do you think?
Sam el Perro
Roar Pro
So in your opinion: big four Euro soccer comps > AFL > NFL? Interesting.
Sam el Perro
Guest
You couldn't point out where, in my comment, I did any of that, could you?
The Cattery
Roar Guru
That's correct, once you move away from the big four European soccer leagues, the AFL TV rights deal is right up there. Not bad for a tiny little sport played in one corner of Australia.
Daniel Robinson
Guest
I thought the EPL had settled a tv deal of 1.8 billion pounds which is about 3 billion Australian dollars for the period of 2010 to 2013 - Mind you Foxtel only need to sell 500,000 subscriptions to Melborne AFL supporters over the next 5 years to get their money back so I guess from Foxtel's perspective its not a bad deal
Daniel Robinson
Guest
punter I agree but I suspect that Football (Soccer) is the no.2 sport in NZ now it's been playing catch up on league for a little while now and with the advent of the Phoenix football has started to overtake.Rugby League. I thought Rugby Union would be the second most popular sport in England as well?
UK Steve
Guest
The last time the tv rights for the French football league were sold, the deal was about $900m AUD over 4 years. This is roughly equivalent to the AFL. Is the French league on the world stage or does everything have to be compared to the EPL and NFL?
ruckrover
Guest
Yes, over the decades I've taken a half dozen international friends to see an AFL match and they've all been mightily impressed - and nearly all knew nothing or next to nothing about the code beforehand. But I think that's changing, as when overseas I find more people I talk sport with are now aware of Australian Football. If the AFL can leverage itself as a niche sport in many countries then over time those TV rights will accrue an international dividend too.
kovana
Guest
Im referring to the constant put down of AFL and belittling the achievement of making a 1Bn+ TV deal. They got the deal cause they are scene as the better Organization/Competition in Australia at the moment.
Sam el Perro
Roar Pro
Who's got hate? Simply put, the article is a fantasy. Saying that this deal puts the AFL on the world stage is like saying that writing comments on The Roar has turned you into a Booker Prize winner. If you want to live in cloud cuckoo land, good for you.
tbg11
Guest
Its relevance is that the article is not about the local sporting scene but tries to compare the AFL's new deal to those of the biggest sporting leagues in the world. So some worldly perspective is needed.
Australian Football
Roar Guru
"AFL deal is big numbers on world stage" The author was relating to the world stage.. Are you having trouble understanding the words in the headline----or comprehending what he was on about ?
Sam el Perro
Roar Pro
Abyss refers to the deep ocean floor. Something bottomless. Not a harbour. Maybe the bitter anti-anti-AFL crowd should dive into a dictionary. :-)
kovana
Guest
Well good for them.. What ever relevance that statement that has on the local soccer scene in Australia.. Who knows. Jeez.
kovana
Guest
Why so much hate Sam? AFL did good and got 1.25 Billion. Obviously execs see more value in AFL then other local Leagues in Australia at the moment. My gosh.. Everyone drop the hate. Goodness.
Australian Football
Roar Guru
Andrew-----Barcelona's Messi and Real Madrid's Ronaldo in a combine transfer deal would be worth more than the AFL TV deal...
kovana
Guest
:lol: Well...
Sam el Perro
Guest
"AFL" and "World Stage" in the same sentence? Only with arithmetic. Carry the three. Divide by two. Move the decimal point. Check the exchange rate. Wow. Suddenly, AFL is the most popular sport in the solar system. Back in the real world, the NFL (as noted in the article) gets about the same as the AFL's five year deal for a single night's game in a single season. On the world stage the AFL isn't even fit to hold the rope that pulls the curtain up. If the world stage is the Globe Theatre, and Hamlet's playing, then the NFL will be delivering tortured soliloquies while the AFL (probably Rosencrantz) is off on a boat somewhere.