Hope for new A-League TV deal before kickoff

i hope foxtel loose out it all goes to one provider because it gets expensive i like my a league and E P L

AFL had no AFL match last weekend & instead had a ladies game & most of AFL heartland turned out to watch on TV. in huge numbers, but where is the growth. AFL is massive in those cities/states, as big as anywhere in the world, but again where is the growth? 10 years ago the Swans did play some of the better known AFL teams at ANZ in front of 70K, now it's barely sells out SCG 40K , beaten easily by some EPL sides playing a local A-League team in a friendly match best remembered for paper planes. So again where is the growth, certainly not in non AFL heartland states where the AFL girls game just didn't rate, nor did it in China or Chile or Congo.Maybe it grows bigger in West Australia, Sth Australia & Victoria.

Mid you regularly talk about these industry experts you have lunch with, in fact, you've written a few articles on your business lunch discussions with these blokes over the years. Generally, the gist of these articles goes something like: the AFL and NRL are entering a period of stagnation, and the A-League is set for massive growth in its stead. But none of your experts predicted the AFL's 1.25B deal five years ago, and none of them predicted the latest $2.5B deal. I'm guessing they didn't predict a womens exhibition game getting ratings which were more than double what the A-League get for one full round on FTA and Fox combined. No wonder I sometimes wonder whether you're having lunch with Fuss!

marcel I will take that as a compliment.

The chatter in town is that the Optus strategy for EPL has been a huge winner for the telco and it is keen to cement itself as the streaming platform for football in Australia and will make a significant bid for the exclusive rights to stream all FFA content (not just A-League, but W-League, FFA Cup and possibly NPL matches) via the internet and mobile channels. Optus does not have the infrastructure to deliver broadcasts via cable, so they will not be making a bid for cable rights. As far as I know (I may be wrong since I'm not fully briefed on the Australian broadcast market) only Foxtel has the capability to broadcast via cable in Australia. The Optus bid for A-League streaming rights will be very enticing for the FFA. The only issue will be whether the FFA is hesitant to sell its streaming rights to a subscription provider or chooses less cash up front from a free-to-view provider like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and, perhaps, enter an agreement to share online advertising revenue.

Its about the money. If Optus does get the rights it would bump up the price significantly, because they would have to outbid Fox. More money to the A-League clubs and the FFA. If people don't switch to Optus and pay TV viewership falls, then this will lead to more people going to the games. More money for the clubs and FFA.

I would have thought that the big danger arising from football leaving Foxtel is that the coverage of the code in Murdoch's rags which is pretty poor at the moment will almost disappear unless it is a negative attack.

Quick study break at 1ish in the morning — got to love coffee. Asanchez I think you misunderstood what I was getting at in my last post. It's not that I don't believe Aleague can grow to 5 FTA matches per week; I'm simply saying the Aleague wouldn't want to allow 100 percent of their matches being broadcast FTA — it would decrease their monetary value. Secondly, competitions such as the AFL are regulated by the anti-siphoning laws, which prohibit certain monopolies from developing. In English: the AFL must allow a minimum amount of their content to be broadcast FTA, irrespective of how much revenue they can generate through private funding models. I haven't looked at the anti-siphoning list recently, but it wouldn't surprise me if association football is on it — albeit with lesser restrictions than cricket, AFL and league. Hope that helps.

Maybe he spends to much time at 7 I don't know but he is in his mid 50's ...

a Bit like yourself I enjoy a number of sports, rugby and surfing are up their for me, TBH until I joined started posting on the Roar, I never gave the AFL a second through. I guess my point was / is I am very happy today with where football is like you its in the blood after a brief stint playing league for about 5 years maybe 50 years of playing it kinda gets to you.

Cheers Mid...Im not questioning the intel...which sounds both logical and v. encouraging.. just thought the coincidence was worthy of MFs sly quip. I've got a fair bit of rust around the edges myself and Sokkah is not a term I hear outside of here.

Mid, I'm a general sports nut, and there's not many sports that I dislike. I enjoy American sports, dont mind the odd NRL game and was an AFL club member for a number of years. I can talk footy with the best of em, and still have a passing interest in the sport. But I no longer watch full games or spend entire weekends watching AFL games. Unlike many people, I believe that you can actually watch and enjoy multiple sports! But Football is in the blood, I used to attend NSL games back in the day, as that was the highest level of Football in Australia at the time. But as soon as the A-league started, I got behind it 100% and I'm a foundation member, not only because I love the sport, but I knew it'd be very tough to startup a new league in the Australian sporting market, and for it to survive. And while there's still many issues within the sport and its definitely not all roses, I can see how much its already grown and also the huge growth that its still has in front of it if it can get things right internally. It has absolutely nothing to do with the other codes, either positively or negatively speaking. Our sport plays in a worldwide market in every sense, not just for players but coaches, potential investors and owners, TV audience and TV rights etc. The sky is the limit.

How amazed was he when you told him about the paid AFL spies that inhabit this board, bet you that raised his eyebrows almost as much as your other statements !

A You and I, and posters like Punter understand something I honestly don't believe the AFL and RL folk have any understanding of. This being we actually don't care what they do or how successful they are... as Punter said elsewhere we have a code and see ourselves in competition with other football leagues and we have a certain smugness in knowing we are the game the world plays. Recently at my work a couple of guys came in and hired a hot desk for the day and it was obvious they where from Melbourne try as they might to get RL and Football folk to get any interest in what they were saying. Then one of the gents when he was laughing at me being a Soccer fan said what the AFL was doing what did I think of it and did it not worry me. He was amazed at how outside essentially the southern states most care nothing of afl.... moreover when i told him i was more concerned about the increasing buying power of China and more recently India as this will impact on who we can bring to the a-league he was gobsmacked we think so little about the afl.

Mate, Even with all our internal issues and politics to date, we've become what we've become in the last 12 years. Even blind Freddy of the business world can see that if we can keep growing the game, and minimize our internal issues, the game's potential is truly massive in Oz. I know its always been called the 'Sleeping Giant of Australian sport' but the last 12 years is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to where this sport can get to. It just needs investment and the right people to steer the ship.

Rick, You grow the league to a point where you're recruiting a high number of quality imports, pay them well, and keep improving the local Australian players and the overall standard lifts dramatically. When this happens across the competition, (yes it could take another decade at least) but why couldn't you have all 5 or more games on FTA?? The EPL in the UK is a bad analogy in this case, as they dominate everything including life itself in the UK. They're not on FTA TV, because they simply don't have to be. They can basically do what they like over there, and a lot people will pay whatever it takes to watch the matches. A similar thing over here is the biggest sport, the AFL. Yes they have all games live on Fox and have their own channel, but they still have many games every week on FTA. I think if they went only onto Fox, they would lose some customers, as there'd be some sort of backlash, but they'd also have many more fans follow the sport and sign up to Fox or wherever they went. But also, being in one of the most competitive sports market on the planet pretty much rules that out from ever happening, as the AFL probably wouldn't be that stupid, as they would potentially lose customers and market share to the other codes if that ever happened.

marcel Don't think among hard core rusted on Football folk its an unusual term. The bloke runs quite a little media business in web design and connections to other media.... when he says he hear people at 7, 9, & 10 talking he is not kidding...

Mid...gotta admit the poster does sound like Fuss...no one else says Sokkah!

A Great points. I liked what you said pertaining to the love and the success. I am aware of models where they measure exposure across print talk back and tv and compare to coverage data. Football if it received a fraction of coverage of league afl union cricket would nay will do a lot better. Interestingly Optus interest has created a bit of anzes from those formally not wanting to give their love...equally they don't want others to give us their love. Great post.

Well, not from the 2 million that regularly watch the game Mr. F. The thing is Football is not in a race with NRL or AFL which is where a lot of people (like you?) tend to compare us with. Is professional football better off today than 30 years ago? (yes definately) Is it better off than it was ten years ago (yes, definately) So forget whatever "predictions" you think you've heard, football continues to be in a better place year after year and maintains a place, nationally, in the hearts of our supporters of which there are millions that watch on tv, millions that attend games live, and millions that play it. We're doing okay, so stop trying to compare us to other established sports and predictions you've read on chat rooms and compare us to our selves. Are we improving each year? Damn right we are :)