Rupert Murdoch backs the AFL as Australia's premium football code

You really have no idea do you?! I don't know anyone who watches australian Gaelic football either so going by your logic That would mean that no one in Australia must watch it. LOL I really don't no why Im bothering replying to you anyways, im guessing from how informative you appear in your comment that you probably will have issues reading and comprehending this!...

Do not know anyone who watches NRL, obviously who does is clustered around metro Sydney. It is a trumped up cult sport like ice hockey, but Channel Nine talks it up to give themselves a 'major' sport. Elephant polo would get better ratings in most of the nation.

In fact fox, the first born and raised American is debuting for St Kilda this weekend, great effort but i don't think that America or many Americans will give a stuff or will it result in many Americans looking at Australian Football. http://www.saints.com.au/news/2015-08-20/star-spangled-saint-to-debut His older brother Andre plays for the Oakland Raiders in the NFL

In fact, on a per capita basis, more NFL players come from American Samoa than anywhere else on Earth - and by a huge, huge margin too. Was it against American Samoa that Australia got the record for the biggest score and win margin in a soccer world cup qualifier?

The NFL has been all over athletes from the PI for years, you ever heard of American Samoa ? 30 players from there in the NFL. 200 play NCAA div 1 american football.

The NFL has been all over athletes from the PI for years, you ever heard of American Samoa ? 30 players from there in the NFL.

League is a lot more similar to NFL than AFL. The punting, whilst important in the context of the game is not the drawcard aspect of the sport. If Hayne makes the cut and starts playing well, it will lead to NFL talent scouts looking over the NRL talent for field players. Allegedly their interest is already piqued after last weekend's display by Hayne. Whilst we are a long, long way off, this could lead to broader interest in the USA and as the seasons do not overlap would potentially provide decent attraction to the US market.

Really good points AR, a lot of the investment was already in place before the $2.5 billion deal came along, effectively meaning, the AFL enters the next seven year period with virtually zero risk.

Is that different to any other TV deal? The sports governing bodies nearly always refer to their "partners", because generally speaking, that is the arrangement. Whoever is paying the piper expects something in return - that's business. Up until this week, wouldn't all four football codes have viewed Fox Sports as an important partner?

Simplistic in the extreme fuss, the AFL allows for adds naturally, the demographics are different, the advertisers are targeting markets, there is much to be weighed in, put simply you are clutching at straws.

"I guess it’s put into some perspective when compared with the FTA ratings for those momentous games for Victory." Well the perspective is simply.. FTA Tv pays $150 million/yr to broadcast AFL (3-4 matches/wk) FTA Tv pays $5 million/yr to broadcast HAL (1 match/wk) I'd expect the TV ratings to reflect this disparity - i.e. I'd expect AFL ratings to be 8x that of HAL on FTA Tv. No surprise if that's the case.

Tom Hackett has been named American Football's best College punter. He and Coach Nathan Chapman talk about the rise of Aussie punters. Ex AFL player Nathan Chapman has placed about 15 Aussie punters in US colleges. 99% of all players have an Australian football background. http://www.prokickaustralia.com/american-college-scholarship/

http://www.foxsports.com.au/us-sports/top-10-aussie-college-football-players-to-watch/story-e6frf6ju-1227122210124 Top ten Aussies playing American football, 7 are punters and Scott Harding who used to play for Brisbane Lions, have a guess what sport the punters all used to play ?. Mind you there are about 40 Australian punters playing college Gridiron in America and Canada, guess which sport all those punters played in Australia, guess where they learnt to kick ?.

Really? That's interesting. Because at the time you were adamant that a one hour delay would have a negligible impact on the Grand Final ratings. I think you were probably right. Given you're regularly banging on about how modest FTA ratings are in NSW/QLD for AFL games, I guess it's put into some perspective when compared with the FTA ratings for those momentous games for Victory.

Doesn't the delayed Saturday arvo AFL game get more viewers than that, week-in week-out? How can you possibly be shocked?

The vast majority of Americans don't even know about Rugby and those that do don't know the difference between league and Union, most reports referring to Hayne as a Rugby player - don't know how that's going to help league.

The ALeague Semi-Final & Grand Final were broadcast on 1 hour delay across Australia. I'm shocked the TV ratings were that high for sport on 1 hour delay.

The "future investment" point is one that many people gloss over. The AFL has already planned, budgeted for, and implemented 2 new expansion clubs in very difficult non-heartland markets. The initial heavy lifting for those clubs is done. It has also secured all of its stadia around the country - most stadiums are either brand new or with recent uprgades. Perth Stadium is on the way, and the AFL will soon assume ownership of a one billion dollar asset in Etihad Stadium. At some of those stadiums the AFL has also reduced food and drink prices, frozen ticket prices, made Sundays free for kids etc etc. All of that happened *without* with $2.5B deal. The NRL is yet to do any of that. It must expand, it must (surely) start investing in stadia, it must stem falling crowds whilst making gameday cheaper etc. The NRL faces far different prospects in terms of how it must use its TV money.

Perhaps. You're obviously referring to the ALeague. There are obvious differences here, including the ability of a broadcaster to sell ad space in a live sporting program (obviously quite limited for soccer) and, more importantly, the overall ratings strength of the product itself. Recently, the warring FFA/SBS camps have been unable to find a willing FTA buyer for the rights, whilst SBS continues to lose money for every ALeague game it screens. In terms of ratings strength, the biggest club in the country, Melbourne Victory, recently played the 2 biggest games of its existence: The blockbuster Melb Derby SemiFinal attracted a FTA audience in Melbourne of just 45k. The even bigger MV v SFC Grand Final attracted 99k FTA viewers in Melbourne (both on slight delay). Will the ALeague's broadcast rights increase in value? Of course they will. But the fledgling league has a long way to go.

@MF Very useful information & highlights 2 things 1. Extremely strong growth in TV revenue since 1997 for AFL 2. In 1997, the AFL was getting $70m/year for a 16 team competition, with 183 matches in a competition where the majority of the clubs had been entrenched in the Victorian sporting culture for 80-100 years. Both these points are important when we review TV rights for sporting competitions involving clubs that have only been operating for 3-10 years & the potential for growth.