Departing Football Federation Australia chief executive Ben Buckley will be hoping record A-League attendance and broadcast figures translate into big bucks at the television rights negotiation table.
Buckley, who will be replaced by former NRL boss David Gallop next month, was beaming on Monday when he announced the domestic television audience for round one which finished on Sunday increased by 53 per cent on last season’s average of 65,000 viewers per round to over 100,000 viewers.
On top of that, the 93,800 fans at five stadiums during the opening week beat the single-round record of 87,000 achieved in round three last season.
Rival football codes the AFL and NRL have announced record $1 billion-plus media deals over the past six months, and the pressure is on the FFA to boost their TV ratings to add cash to their game.
With one year remaining on the current media deal, Buckley is in the midst of negotiating a new broadcast contract before his departure in November.
The A-League has arguably been hamstrung by a pay-TV rights deal sold relatively cheaply in 2005 for an estimated $125 million over seven years when the competition was born.
It is thought a new five-year deal worth over $40 million per season will leave the game in decent shape and a free-to-air TV deal will be crucial in the new broadcast structure.
The weekend’s record crowd and domestic viewing figures doubtless owe much to the high profile recruitments of Italy’s Alessandro Del Piero (Sydney FC), England’s Emile Heskey (Newcastle Jets) and Japan’s Shinji Ono (Western Sydney Wanderers) who all made their A-League debuts.
However, the crowd figures were also given a huge boost by the 42,032 who passed through the turnstiles at Etihad Stadium for the Melbourne derby between the Victory and Heart on Friday night.
Buckley also touched on the importance of television to the commercial success of the league when pointing to new audiences overseas.
“The exciting thing is that the game is now going to more corners of the world than ever before,” said Buckley.
“The Sydney FC game (against Wellington Phoenix) being broadcast live into Italy is a wonderful opportunity for us to promote the A-League to players who may want to come here in the future as well as fans.
“So to be broadcast into Japan, into Italy, right throughout Asia, right across the globe is a testament to the credibility the A-League is getting worldwide.”
While it’s still early days in the season and it remains to be seen if the audience boost is lasting, the figures are a welcome boost for the FFA with the Socceroos, whose success is also crucial to the game’s financial health, in a precarious position trying to qualify for the 2014 World Cup.
Buckley and the FFA are also still trying to rebound after a disastrous 2022 World Cup bid when they only registered one vote and were convincingly beaten by tiny emirate Qatar.
The failure of A-League franchises Gold Coast United last season and Townsville-based Northern Fury FC in March 2011 also cast doubt on the viability of the national competition, forcing the rushed introduction of Western Sydney Wanderers this season.
Emric
Guest
Midfielder. Just to add to your NZ information SkyNZ made over a one hundred million dollar profit for 2011 and is on target for a higher profit margin this year there are 850,000 New Zealand homes who have sky TV. This does not count those TV's who get sky via Telstra-Clear TV (soon to be vodafone) SkyNZ currently pays 13 million dollars a year for the NRL tv rights but does not want to pay much more the talk is max of 20 million I do not know how much sky pay for the A-League rights Either way SkyNZ is becoming more and more important to Australian competitions and a major reason why Australian sporting competitions are prepared or in some cases desire to have new zealand teams involved.
Just Wandering
Guest
Good commentry. I was at the pre-season game we all know about. The way the media followed the NRL led DailyTelegraphs story was disgraceful. However, I think they have worked out that the telegraph sells mostly in western sydney and its a western sydney team for the people. So the opportunity to make money may have changed the attitude of these organisations. I was really surprised to see coverage on ABC too. As for the game on saturday night, I am a foundation member of WSW and a season ticket holder. The atmosphere was awesome, people happy and the ground is very very good to watch football (perfect size and in good condition). If the fools stay away and the media leave out the negative stuff we will be up for the best season yet. Good stuff!
Daryl Adair
Guest
Waiting for the new A-League media deal with interest. Hopefully enough to pay the bills - at least! Financial sutainability of the FFA is just as important (perhaps more so) than the A-League teams themselves, which seem to have financial backers willing to make up for deficits. As football writer Bonita Mersiades has noted: "In recent years a national domestic league could not have survived without the support of the Australian Government. Approximately $150 million has been granted to Football Federation Australia (FFA) for operating costs in the past eight years, excluding the World Cup Bid." The govt cannot keep the FFA afloat year in year out. So my fingers are crossed for a TV deal at least double that of the first one. For Bonita's article, which is well worth a read, please see: http://sportsbusinessinsider.com.au/news/category/financial-and-governance/boats-against-the-current-the-past-present-and-future-of-football-in-australia/
Griffo
Roar Guru
The A-League segment seemed to go quickly, but did a double take when the clock reckoned it was 40 minutes long. I wonder how long it will be when 'The A-League Wrap' is its own show on SBS...
Emric
Guest
Midfielder - the RU deal covers only Super Rugby + Tri-nations (now the Rugby Championship). End of year tours, mid season tours are all organised independently. NZ and SA have separate deals for the ITM Cup and CC. The Rugby Union Deal is 437 million USD which works out to be 29 million USD a year for 5 teams which is 5.8 million USD per team per year for football to get the same value of money per team over 10 teams would require 58 million per year or 290 million USD over 5 years. from what I've read it looks like it will get close to this figure which will be great for the A-League
Stevo
Guest
Statistical sampling yes plus I reckon information supplied from set top boxes that send back data about what is being viewed at any time of the day.
nordster
Guest
cool we wont have PRK in our final group then i guess...well i've found my 2nd team, unless our friends from Qatar qualify :)
Midfielder
Guest
Fadida & Tow LOL but if they can get an average of between 15 & 25 K over the season when added to our own ratings it adds up.. RL are doing a separate media deal with NZ broadcasters and are hoping for between 20 & 30 million per year ... Assume we can hold at say 100, 000 plus another 15, 000 in NZ .... that figure is similar to a low rating AFL game.... As RL have recently discovered NZ with 4.7 million people who like rugby ... also have a second sport and depending on who you read its RL or Football ... but it is very close .... don't write off the importance of NZ .... actually 31, 770 to watch the Nix as a percentage of 4.7 million ... is higher than our 108, 000 average with 22.5 million ....
Midfielder
Guest
The Nix V ADP FC match in NZ had 31, 770 .... not sure about the other matches .... Pay TV in NZ has nowhere near the % of households connected as we do ... I assume other matches would be lower ... so maybe an average of 20 k [guessing] meaning we have 128 K average .... that BTW is more than a number of AFL matches...
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Qualification Draw for 2015 AFC Asian Cup being held LIVE in Melbourne right now. Logo looks fantastic. Being broadcast on FoxSports - on TV & online. AUS, JPN, KOR & PRK have all automatically qualified.
Towser
Guest
Of course,in department store widows.
fadida
Guest
They have tv in NZ? ;)
Midfielder
Guest
I left a post on the yellowfever site asking if they knew the NZ ratings.... I assume they will reply in time... but you need to add the NZ ratings as well ....
nordster
Guest
As a measure of percentage...comparative from one program to another, sure...but as a means of reliably saying how many viewers (total) are actually watching? All tv ratings panels are flawed in their sample sizes, just to varying degrees. No one used to care as advertisers always needed something, as do media. But these days as they become used to more direct data online. Well in theory the iq boxes could be sending back more direct actual data. Downside is the lack of demographics i guess. Which is i am guessing why they prefer the more rigid but flawed ratings panel sample where folks log on each time they watch.
c
Guest
fuss foxsports also doing a very much improved magnificent job compared to recent past luv c :)
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
Crook was an appointment they backed which always gives you more time. They had the ADP interview and that would probably be a factor along with the new football CEO too.
striker
Guest
Titus the difference this year is Wetern Sydney and alot of the supporters will now support them.they will still have 10-12 k regualar support at least i hope they will.
Titus
Guest
But Sydney continued to get decent crowds for the rest of the year regardless. If SFC are rubbish they will still get 12-15 000 turn up all year, the point is, if they played good football they would get 20-25 000 all year.
KHAN
Guest
I was the at SFC against MH game last year and most of the part timers openly said they weren't coming back to watch SFC.
fadida
Guest
Surprising SFC and Jets didn't cop more flak from Foz especially. For me Jets were the worst side on display. Amazed to see Fozz so positive. While I enjoyed the opening round and will watch the a-league ahead of the EPL, it wasnt to the level I'd hoped or expected. Very impressed by WP and Fenton. All that talk of Jets high tempo, pressing, movement and rotation...... :(