I was chuffed with the recent announcement of the new broadcast rights deal for football in Australia. As a Foxtel customer, I was hoping things would stay the same.
Foxtel have invested vast sums in producing a quality coverage, been there from the outset, and while having an obvious commercial interest, should be commended for what they have done for football in this country.
I’m sure the on-air Foxtel team high-fived in unison when the deal was finally brokered. Six years of job security is a rare thing in the fickle entertainment industry and the on-air talent should retain their jobs as long as they avoid catastrophe and mind their Ps and Qs.
The contributions of John Kosmina, Ned Zelic, Mark Rudan, Mark Bosnich, Adam Peacock and Robbin Slater have been pleasantly understated, yet at the same time, insightful.
Tara Rushton is a treat as an anchor and apart from the irritating Daniel Garb, who continues to refer to the Wanderers as the ‘wonderers’, listen carefully it’s hilarious, the hosts and associated experts have struck a nice balance.
The sum of all the parts is that Foxtel will continue with their coverage and a free-to-air channel (no doubt one of the losers in the battle for the big bash rights) will pick up a Saturday night game.
And thus, for the next six years I will continue to get quality coverage, commentary and analysis, all for around fifteen cups of coffee a month.
While some baulk at the idea of paying for television coverage, they generally only see the rubbish excreted by commercial networks and their quality sensor is significantly lowered. The big bash is a prime example of the shameless cross promotion and over-commercialised product often dished up by the major networks.
While fair to point out that Foxtel are in it for the same reasons as the Nine, Ten and Seven, they are less likely to get away with coverage similar to the nonsense thrown up by the commercial stations who seem to feel bulletproof when it comes to viewer sentiment.
Purchasing the rights to events to lock out other networks, such as Nine’s Ashes coverage years back when they failed to even televise the first session, as well as showing NRL in standard definition for years until finally introducing their HD alternative in 2016 were both insults to consumers.
The different networks Australian-centric Olympic and Commonwealth games’ coverage, is a further example. Coverage of these major events is offensive to sport lovers. who may actually want to see the more obscure events, the winners of all competitions and some international athletes rather than an over-romanticised, nationalistic greeting card that borders on propaganda.
Seven’s Australian Open tennis coverage suffers from the same cringe and it’s not until all the Aussies are eliminated that the coverage actually begins to pay attention to those players with an actual chance of success, rather than Aussie wild cards who seem only important one month of the year.
Someone needs to tell network seven that she isn’t actually ‘our Sam.’ Sure, good player, enjoy watching her battle away, yet no more so than the couple of hundred other players in search of glory at Melbourne park.
Foxtel’s coverage of football has been consistently good and never treated its fans in ways similar to those listed above. The new deal is heartening for me and other subscribers, yet deep down there is a fear that this will be the last hurrah.
Fast forward to 2021 and ask, Where is football? Personally, I think bigger and better.
Average crowds in excess of 15,000? Club membership in excess of 150,000? Continued participation rates across junior levels that see it as Australia’s number one game in terms of exercise and team play for our kids? The new funding providing the opportunity for top quality marquee players to come and ply their trade in our league?
Personally, I feel the answer to all of these questions could be yes in six years’ time. If that is the case, the commercial networks will circle.
The bandwagon networks will climb on board and attempt to steer the digital and broadcasting future of the game, despite little or no involvement in the foundation work that Foxtel and the FFA have done to grow the game.
What scares me the most is that one of the big three will win the rights and over-commercialise the product.
As football continues to grow, the next deal could be worth double the one just struck. Some might think this is fanciful, yet the beast is growing at a rate that is actually starting to make inroads into the broader supporter base on the Australian sporting landscape.
If the unthinkable happens and a commercial network does acquire the keys to the colossus that is football, what will it look like?
Perhaps the most hotly disputed issue will be the positioning of advertisements. It would be foolish to think that a commercial network will be able to afford to eliminate ads whistle to whistle. The day a goal is missed while I am bombarded with useless information about KFC’s latest bucket will be a sad day for football.
No doubt commentators would need to be poached from all corners and who they target would be interesting. Unfortunately, they would also make desperate clutches for instant credibility with a ‘name’.
Would they throw millions at Les Murray, Craig Foster or perhaps Mark Bosnich. Bosnich would probably be number one on the list at the moment. He brings international cred as well as a willingness to challenge the establishment and a slightly looney persona that is popular with viewers.
A natural by-product of a future commercial deal would be shameless cross promotion. The day I saw Richie Benaud lurching towards me from behind jungle vines wearing a pithe helmet during Nine’s cricket coverage, I knew they had reached a new low.
Listening to Nine’s commentary team ‘plug’ upcoming shows on their network is artificial and insulting.
Where the network might stick microphones concerns me greatly. The idea of a ‘miked’ up goalkeeper or Besart Berisha being interviewed post goal celebration ‘big bash’ style makes me cringe.
Furthermore, the network’s use of gadgets with cheesy names and questionable purposes gives me chills. A sweeping ‘spidercam’ gadget hovering across the pitch, distracting all and sundry is something to really look forward.
It will also be great to switch on at 7.30pm for a bit of pre-game and a 7.45 kick off, only to watch a drawn out, advertisement laden, melodrama that extends well past eight o’clock.
State of Origin is the biggest culprit in this area and we can only hope that a deal with a commercial network doesn’t allow start times to be continually delayed with viewers forced to watch a pontificating ex-coach walk across the pitch, rambling on about things of which only he seems certain.
Apparently the future of league, according to their recent advertisement campaigns using the brilliant Erin Molan to tap into markets they have neglected in recent times, is the kids. It might be nice if they started the games early enough so young kids can see the end.
Origin on school nights ending at 10.30pm? Are these people even thinking?
Where the Socceroos fit into all of this is of major concern. They are the jewel in the crown and hopefully there are two successful World Cup qualifying campaigns before the new deal.
If that does prove to be the case, the value attached to the national team could be considerably more than where it currently stands.
It will be the FFA’s role to protect that Socceroos jersey and ensure that the balance between and intricacies within the local league and the national team are considered in planning and implementation.
Imbedding a level of flexibility to allow for expansion, growth, the W-League and natural evolution and attrition will also be vital.
An immense task, and I feel personally, one too important to hand to commercial networks that have long histories of corporate interests being far more influential than the voices, concerns and opinions of those actually watching.
I’ll sit back and watch my festive football campaign on Foxtel with ten games in eleven days and bask in ad free, HD football with excellent broader coverage outside the actual matches.
All the while, I’ll be hoping Foxtel strike a similar deal in six years time with the only difference being the financial figure attached.
Sean
Guest
And how does buying the content for a specific format and then squandering it by not broadcasting it helping the game? How is that good for the league? It is not in my opinion. Unless there is a dramatic change by Fox Sports to actually create their own proper digital platform then they are just squatting on the licence (in this regard) and it equates to a missed opportunity by the governing body to reach more people. On the one hand they are asking people to pick a team to support and on the other they are limiting access to the league, seems counterproductive to their goal in my opinion and as such this deal is not really delivering all it can for the A-League so therefor is not a great deal for the league. Just 6 more years of 30% awesome access, the mass media getting a tiny percent of poor access and just nothing in the digital world. So yeah if you have Fox Sports it is a good deal but for everyone else it just does not deliver again.
Beny Iniesta
Guest
How do you know Foxtel specified they wouldn't pay as much for the content as they did unless they got the digital rights as well? In fact I'll bet that was part of the deal - ie, they wanted to keep any competitors out. Why wouldn't they? Afterall, where was the competition??
Sean
Guest
I agree the coverage offered by Fox Sports is the best commercial TV coverage the league could hope for. They have built what is overall an excellent team and they put a lot of resources into broadcasting the league. I do note that subscription commercial tv only accounts for some 30% of the overall market so reach is limited. FTA provides the maximum reach in the present landscape and that is why the FFA are chasing one of the three commercial FTA channels in this broadcast package. It will not give the best financial return in itself but will provide the extra reach the FFA hope will generate interest from new segments of the market. I agree with your assessment that commercial FTA cannibalise sporting content to maximise advertising revenue (why else do refs in the NRL go to the video replay for try’s so often?) and it is why I don’t look forward to the football leaving SBS (even with their budget cuts resulting in them moving football off the primary channel and HD). I do however put part of the blame on a lack of a good commercial FTA option down to the Murdoch’s meddling as they destroyed One HD as a FTA sports channel to stop it ever becoming competition to Fox Sports. But I digress, I don’t think this new broadcast deal is a very good deal at all. They should have broken the deal up into three parts rather than two, they have, in my view, sold themselves short. They should have sold rights separately for paytv, free to air and digital, instead they just lugged the digital rights into the deal with Fox Sports, a huge disservice to the A-League going forward. Fox Sports and Sky have held the digital rights to the league in Australia and New Zealand for a long time and they have done absolutely nothing with it. In fact Fox Sports has a terrible record of delivering digital content period and given that the FFA has given them these rights again we are not likely to see a change to this in the near future. It is funny, if not sad, that on the digital front we previously had a better service internationally than we had in our own territory. For a princely sum of $80 a year you could have enjoyed live HD streams of the A-League with catch-up option on livesport.tv, who was the league’s international digital partner for a large sway of territories over the last few years until the service went belly up mid-2016. Anyway, we could have been in a world right now where Fox Sports had the paytv rights, commercial FTA channel a,b,c had the FTA rights and given they have the best available platform already built in Australia, Optus the digital rights. Or even better, the FFA hold onto the digital rights and build/buy their own digital platform and deliver the content directly to the consumer in the same way major American sports do in the USA ( MLS, MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL etc ). This new deal means it is almost a certainty that I will still be unlikely to get a service where I can watch all games in HD anytime I want. If I miss a game I can just watch it later when I get home or the next day and not be locked into content, equipment and other services I don’t want. So for me the next 6 years of this deal is just a waste of time, opportunity and money, and will only hold the league back from reaching its full potential for longer. As for the comments about the Socceroos, as the FFA do not hold the rights to the Socceroos matches in qualification the value of them is irrelevant as the AFC will just sell them to whoever for whatever the highest amount they can get. The bulk of the money will be spent across the AFC’s various programs so the real question and importance of Socceroos content becomes the access. It is good to see Fox Sport’s iron grip on exclusive rights for the Socceroos for live timeslots come to an end as it is important that the national team be available on all platforms to everyone live. Ideally again this would fall to SBS or ABC on FTA but it is not likely anymore so we are stuck with sub-par commercial offering if they bother, a good quality paytv offering that only covers a fraction of everyone and zero digital options, oh goody I can’t wait.
Bob Brown
Roar Guru
Absolutely Stuart and look how many consortiums are now lining up to buy A-League licenses at $5M+ a pop. The extra money will flow back to the game right down to grassroots level and help it continue to grow.
concerned supporter
Guest
They call you a soccer diehard.You are a bigoted fanatic, and the worst possible person to "recruit" new fans to soccer.
northerner
Guest
Punter - oh, believe me, I do ignore a lot of what Nemesis says. I've been doing a lot of that today ;)
punter
Guest
What drives you Concerned supporter?
punter
Guest
Northerner, Likewise, if Nemesis upsets you, you can ignore or prove him wrong (good luck with that). This is a comment site & I expect that you will get diehard fans who may go too far on every tab on this site, see I don't mind that. I am surprised that someone like you would get upset with finding diehards on their respective codes, but have the attitude of this is a comment site, when you get those who consistently want to degrade a sport, just because he or she finds 'soccer hard to watch even at the best of times'. BTW I have no need to prove Mister F wrong, because he has his agendas.
concerned supporter
Guest
The worst advertisement for A-League or soccer is this bigot Nemesis(formerly Fuss).I live in Sydney and am not an AFL supporter but I think that many AFL supporters go to the soccer tab to stir this fanatic.
northerner
Guest
punter - I understand what Midfielder is saying. It's a valid question, but this is a comment site, so Mr F has the right to comment as well. Ignore him,or better yet, prove him wrong, but the devil's advocate role has its uses. And I'm certainly not assuming that all the dedicated football fans on here have the same blinkered view as Nemesis - I have no issues with Midfielder, Waz or yourself, for example. But there are a few who share Nemesis' opinions - you only have to look at a couple of today's other threads to see that. Fortunately, the FFA has a broader vision of football than they do.
punter
Guest
Northerner, You fall into the same trap as some of the AFL fanboys in thinking everyone thinks the same the our resident hard core football fan. I think my daughter is a football fan, she plays the game, may watch the odd game or 2 live every year, even indulges in code war with her boyfriend who plays local AFL in Sydney. I love my golf as well as Football, love the cycling & the Olympics, I watch the major tennis games, Test cricket, the wallabies etc, so not a mono culture sports fan. but I do really love football. We welcome all, but one wonders why AFL fans like Mister (soccer is difficult to watch at the best of times) football bother on this tab when clearly this sport is not for them. This is what Midfielder was saying.
northerner
Guest
Nice little videos, MF - thanks. Got some surfer dudes in the family so they resonate!
punter
Guest
Edward, maybe a little unkind, but most fans like you, 'I kind of do'. Some of the sport fans I associate with talks like this, 'I had on in the background', I watched it for awhile' 'yeah it's a bit of fun, but for real cricket i watch the tests'.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
@ Northerner; I think you'll find that the people involved in marketing all sports are interested in a far broader segment of the community than mono-sport, hard-core fans. Many, if not most, of us engage in a number of sports and hence there is competition for our hard earned. I've dropped some coin visiting various countries for orienteering over the years I can tell you. Come to think of it, it may well be time for me to do another orienteering article for The Roar, however I can feel an article on Kiribati football looming :)
Up the Wahs
Roar Guru
I kind of do punter I like the BBL domestically, could never get into shield cricket but could not really care Australia does in international 20/20's but love tests. I suspect I'm not alone judging by interest in these two opposite forms. Of course unlike a-league/nrl or afl fans are very passive but there are a lot of them and they do attend and watch in huge numbers.
Midfielder
Guest
Northerner 100 % agree we should enjoy all sports for me I still play touch, and enjoy international union and Manly in League. I am very much into surfing and can appreciate a good rider and a good wave and love to talk about the difference between a northern and southern break and the effect of sand bars and wind on waves ... however I am very much in a small pool in these matters.. You may enjoy this nothing to do with Football but surfing my other sport... From a album that I liked back in the day i.e late 60;s early 70's... Aussie classic song in surfing teams... enjoy ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIO9sw1w9vI Then again from the same album... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifMyEly4e_g
Michael
Guest
A few short months ago, the CEO's of the three FTA networks were quoted as saying they were bidders for the FTA rights to the A-League. We are now told that none of them are interested in the tv rights any longer! HUH?! How could this be? The only unusual situation that has happened within the intervening time period has been an unscheduled meeting to discuss the television industry as a whole between Fox Sports/News Ltd and the three CEOs of the FTA networks. Following that meeting we are now informed that the FTA network chiefs have suddenly ALL gone cold on the A-League! Are we to believe that skullduggery has not occurred?
Michael
Guest
Have you checked CH 7's share price recently Jack? It's shrank 97% since 2005, after it bought the AFL tv rights. That share price says just about all that needs to be said about the TRUE value of those tv rights!
northerner
Guest
I dunno. I just know the cricket fans in my extended family are trying to catch both: they range in age from the 30s to the 70s. I just keep out of their way.
northerner
Guest
I am a casual sports fan, and actually quite enjoy being one. I grew up with hockey, baseball and North American football, and to a lesser extent "soccer," I have lived abroad a lot, and learned to deal with cricket, rugby (both versions), and a plethora of other sports that were not exactly the ones in favor back home.. I have been to amateur and professional level games in all those sports (except League). That includes some Champion's League fixtures. I also like figure skating, ski jumping and Moto GP. I certainly don't regard myself as "pathetic." I regard people who need to constantly put down other people who think differently to themselves, as being the truly pathetic ones. I don't need to justify being a casual fan: you need to justify why that makes me a lesser person than you. In my world, differences in interests and tastes are a a good thing; in yours, I guess, not so much.