The new football TV deal will be announced next week, a four year deal, with a free-to-air element, amounting to just under $40 million dollars a season.
That’s according to a report from Roy Masters in today’s Sydney Morning Herald.
The only detail that needs to be fleshed out between now and then is whether the one live game a week on SBS features on Friday night or on the more ratings-friendly Saturday night.
I’ve previously suggested that Friday night would be the perfect opportunity to showcase the A-League on free-to-air.
For Fox Sports, the broader attention from free-to-air coverage on Friday should also drive up their ratings and help introduce to rest of the weekend’s action.
This seems to be model that the NRL have adopted, with great success.
What’s new in the report this morning from Masters is the mooted length of the deal, with all previous reports suggesting the deal would be five years.
While I’d previously suggested a three year deal would be the perfect scenario, bringing football to the head of the queue at the next TV negotiation cycle, the reduction from five to four is certainly a win for the round ball game.
What it means is that the following TV deal will start on July 1, 2017.
With the AFL and NRL five year deals also up for negotiation around the same time, it give football an opportunity to be at the bargaining table, not left with the scraps.
Incoming boss David Gallop now has a carrot.
The likelihood is that the negotiations for the next deal will start during the 2015/16 season, and that’s only three years away.
It would come on the back of having had Alessandro Del Piero here for at least two seasons, and the hope is that the A-League can continue to grow in that period, attract more marquees of his calibre.
TV ratings, attendances and media coverage are all significantly on the rise this season on the back of the arrival of Del Piero, Emile Heskey & Shinji Ono.
The arrival of Harry Kewell and Brett Emerton at the start of last season gave the A-League an opportunity to start an upwards trend after a two or three years of decline.
The key, now, is to keep building on this, every season.
Better players, more educated coaches, more sophisticated media coverage, more sponsors and a competition that always has fans as the centerpiece.
Then there’s the national team, the Socceroos.
Certainly reaching Brazil 2014 would be a massive boost, and the spirited come from behind win in Doha over Iraq gives the Socceroos a better chance than they appeared to have ahead of that qualifier.
It’s no guarantee that Holger Osieck, struggling to rejuvenate the side, will get us there, but the hope is he will, and that the team will be starting the climb back up the mountain by then.
Certainly, having them back on free-to-air, even on hour delay, should return the Socceroos into the national conscience.
There’s no doubt the length of the previous TV deal and the fact the Socceroos were relegated from free-to-air had a big impact on the Socceroos “brand”.
Giving the back to the nation is one of the best things football can do.
Then, on back of the World Cup, we can immediately start to look forward to the Asian Cup the following year.
If it’s a hit, and if the 1993 World Youth Cup is any indication, it should be, that would allow Gallop to come to the bargaining table from a position of strength.
While the $40 million a season deal mightn’t line the FFA’s pockets for the next few years, what the four year deal ultimately does is give football an opportunity for a better deal at the next round.
Daryl Adair
Guest
Philk, don't get too carried away. The Mariners were awaiting the "Russians" to come and finance them over the summer. Do you know who stepped in to keep them afloat? The Centre of Excellence, while a welcome infrastructure for the club, has been a very costly exercise too. Don't get me wrong, I hope they do well. But I don't think it's all beer and skittles in terms of club finances. The club culture, though, is particularly strong.
Daryl Adair
Guest
Latest ABS stats actually show that organised swimming/diving is by far the sport with most participants (male and female). I was surprised. You can download the excel spreadsheets for details. See: http://abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/4901.0~Apr+2012~Main+Features~Sports+participation?OpenDocument
andaroo
Guest
Hey Towser, don't despair so much. Sure football is the future dominant code in this country, but the nation's sporting landscape has a history to contend with. The legacy of Aussie Rules and Rugby code dominance is still with us. Big money is always slow to move initially. You can see in this initial deal outline that great strides have been made. More than double the size budget with greatly improved terms such as the Fta component , improved Socceroos exposure, extra A-league matches on delayed telecast (all reducing the cash offer from Fox but giving the FFA much greater flexibility for the next 4 years and for negotiating future TV deals) . Strategically it makes a lot of sense . There is also the fine print still to read concerning incentives for expansion of the league,....
Paul
Guest
Maybe Tom Waterhouse knows something we don't.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
More likely $160m over 3 years to put our next negotiations in 2015 - ahead of the next cycle of AFL & NRL TV broadcast deals and to leverage positive sentiment gained from the 2015 AFC Asian Cup.
Nathan of Perth
Roar Rookie
$160m over 4 years is what they would be talking about...
apaway
Roar Guru
ABC radio reported this morning that the TV deal was worth $160 million. Was this a mistake on their part or have the FFA quadrupled the deal's value in the last 3 days?
nordster
Guest
Ian i was more meaning that a big australia type policy could result in more wealth coming in if adequately advanced. :) private investment in clubs and facilities potentially. Its clear that construction costs for any major projects are absurdly beyond the reach of our country due largely to high labour and other often govt induced costs. Big australia combined with sweeping labour market reforms and migration zones/projects would be a more effective way of building stadia and reforming our economy along more libertarian lines at the same time...other major projects like high speed rail and broadband infrastructure become more viable. Clubs buying into existing grounds is a good way too though. Over time govt should be gifting the ones they do control into community trusts or clubs themselves. Dont agree they should be owned centrally, unless it is a privately held Westfield or whoever else Football Trust. Not the federation imo.
phutbol
Guest
Didnt the Knights play out of Auckland? not very astute at the time...
Sky Blues
Guest
Then we have to worry about the league being stale though... Just saying.
Australian Rules
Guest
Fuss...so much vitriol...so little to say. The AFL will actually acquire Etihad Stadium well prior to its 2025 deadline. It's ahead of its payment plan, meaning it will own Etihad (a $1Billion asset) outright and not have to pay anything extra for it. The money's already been paid. It's hilarious that anyone that follows sport in the Australian marketplace could not acknowledge that is a massive achievement. And Ian's right, it took 50 years of prudent planning. Why would any football club in Australia want to own their own stadium? Why be saddled with European levels of debt...especially when there are no sheiks or Russian billionaires to keep funnelling money in? Silly statement.
Punter
Guest
This is correct B.A. it would be hard for either of these channels to put the A-League game on prime time tv, we just do not have the following or the history. However, these days with digital TV, there are more options for the commercial stations, even channel 7 puts the premiers of the AFL on 7Mate in Sydney because it just doesn't rate enough to put on channel 7.
B.A Sports
Correct Oly09 - Ch9/7/10 would probably screw with it and put it on delayed and why? Because they won't believe they can get the revenue through TV advertising they could showing other programming. Heck Ch9 only show 1 NRL game live a week and that has a well established audience. If the networks thought they could recoup a $150million in advertising, they would have paid $100million for it, but they don't think they can, so they don't.
peeeko
Roar Guru
they only play in two stadiums?
peeeko
Roar Guru
exactly Nathan, the continual comparison of inter code popularity and size of Tv contracts gets us nowhere. all that matters is that the Aleague gets bigger and better
peeeko
Roar Guru
nice try but the commissions and brokerage here seem to be a whole lot larger than those in buying a house. 30% compared to around 3%
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
@ Ian Whitchurch Thanks. So, to summarise, none - not even 1 of the Victorian teams, who are over 100 years - owns its own stadium. And, the AFL will only own 1 stadium - Docklands in 13 years. A long-term lease at the MCG is really nothing special. For any major event - Olympics, Commonwealth Games or FIFA WC, the owners of the MCG simply tell the AFL to "vacate the premises". I'd have expected at least 1 AFL club - perhaps, the alleged financial giant, Collingwood, to afford its own stadium. Although, from the last foray into the property market, it's probably best Collingwood stays away from big investments.
Ian Whitchurch
Guest
Midfielder, The guaranteed, reliable, on-a-fixed-night game on free to air is huge for the code.
philk
Guest
Agree Ben..development of youth ala Mariners Centre of Exellence is the way forward for, not only the A-League but football in general. I can visualise the time when our National Team is made up of players from the A-League who have learned their trade at these kind of institutions. We only have to look at Japan to see how this approach is the only way to go. We can no longer rely on the UK and Europe to develop our youngsters.
philk
Guest
This is the real story of how football can both succeed and prosper in this country.....no millionaire backers ...no million dollar marquees....just pure hard work by players and management alike. The Mariners certainly deserve all the accolades that come their way given the 'much publicised' struggles they have had just to stay afloat let alone develop players for the future of football in this country.