COVID lockdowns may force A-League to delay season

Live TV ratings will always be of some large significance to broadcasters, but increasingly less so. It is all about engagement across platforms. As I said above, I watched the game on demand on Wednesday morning. The video was set up so that I could not fast forward through ads, and in each block there was 4-5 ads. It seemed like I might have watched MORE than I would have if I watched live the night before. Perhaps the revenue from the on-demand replay ads was charged at less than the live ads, but surely it wouldn’t have been that much of a difference with the live broadcast being at the quite late time of 10pm. In any case, I could be said to have been just as valuable to ViacomCBS as an on-demand viewer than as a viewer that watched live. Then consider highlights and mini-match content. In is standard practice for highlights to be uploaded to YouTube as standard practice now, and when you watch one of those you usually are subjected to two ad blocks of 1-2 ads each (unless you pay for YT Premium which I have recently done). Potentially four ads for a 3-7 minute video! Even the content that you pay for on Optus displays ads (Hungry Jacks et al) so they are monetising consumers twice (subscription fees and ad revenue). I sometimes watch the 9:30pm PL game but mostly I just watch mini-matches and highlights on demand. Again, I am no less valuable as a consumer to Optus even though I rarely watch matches live. This then shows us what the APL is looking to develop with their Football Hub platform. In a lot of ways, it’ll be a football-specific YouTube. Get a bunch of video content in the form of highlights, mini-matches, interviews and feature pieces and then imbed ads into them. The more leagues the better, especially blue chip ones such as the Premier League and La Liga. Then you add written articles (match previews, match reports etc etc.) replete with advertising banners. Then you create fantasy and tipping competitions replete with naming rights sponsors and more ad banners. Then you create a forum portal such as the one I’m writing on right now, with, you guessed it, advertising banners such as the one you can probably see on your screen as you read this. Merch stores, tickets, ladder predictors, stats and analytics. product sales, product sales, ads and ads. Then maybe you can add a subscription fee that mimics YouTube by taking all the ads away for say $5/mth. For Australian football (A-League, W-League, Socceroos, Matildas, FFA Cup etc.) it will therefore come down to how much time people are spending engaging with these competitions, and not just via live broadcasts. If more people do that, that engagement will be monetised make no doubt. Football Hub is the potential game-changer because it cuts YT out of the content producer-platform-advertiser model they operate on and instead brands pay APL directly. But also, it creates a potential one-stop shop that becomes ubiquitous with football fans in the same way YT is for many. A site you visit at least once daily like I do with YT to watch MLB and MLS highlights. I however can’t imagine this working to the same extent while Optus have the rights to the PL. They have their own model set out kind of already doing what I have described above, so those TV rights are going to be absolute hot property later in the year. Done right, this Football Hub has a chance to be a massive game-changer to the sport in this country and just sports content and broadcasting in Australia in general. APL are looking to corner the local market of the biggest sport in the world.

I think that's a sensible idea to move it to after the international window. By that stage NSW and Vic should both be close to 80% vaccination rates and I fully expect that some level of crowds will be allowed to attend. My concern is with WA, SA & Qld - Question is whether their premiers will allow quarantine free travel as NSW and Vic aren't getting rid of covid. Maybe Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane will need to be based within NSW/Vic for a little while. And I think it's obvious Wellington will be based in NSW for at least until the end of the year.

NoMates, yes you bare correct, Rugby is dead. Bledisloe is the biggest games that the Wallabies can play outside the World Cup and Lions and they can only get that number. Lets randomly grab other games, like you seem to be doing. Olyroo's and Matilda games at the Olympics smashed TV ratings. As stated below, game at 10pm on a Tuesday night is never going to get great numbers. Agree that the Japan game at home is better indicator. Also, since you are publishing numbers, what show beat the Socceroos at 10pm on Tuesday night, just interested.

Well put, I'd add if we had 15% of vietnam's people living in australia that would pump up the numbers a bit more as well :silly:

It very well might be, but to really know you’d need to compare apples with apples. a 10pm kick off on a Tuesday night is worlds away from a nice lazy Sunday afternoon kick off for starters. I for one knew I wasn’t going to be able to stay up till midnight watching the Socceroos, so watched the game on demand the next morning. Are people that did this included in the 91k ratings? Secondly, a Bledisloe test is about the most premium Wallabies content available to that sport, whereas, with all due respect to Vietnam, they are a bit lower down on the pecking order for Socceroo’s fans. One match had crowds, another did not. Another was in Australia, another was in another country. Although to be fair, the Bledisloe was a dead rubber which would have impacted their own numbers. So let’s use the match against Japan in Australia on March 24 as the benchmark to see where the Socceroos are at currently I think. This match could or should be for WC qualification on the line on the night. If this is the case, you would hope and expect for State of Origin type viewing numbers, and hopefully an 80k crowd at Stadium Australia (if Covid allows us).

I cant see an issue with double vaccinated squads of players and coaches travelling sometime in November the rate vaccinations are going . The big question are they prepared to do it, and get rid of any anti-vax nutters. The PFA could be a massive issue if they oppose it the league should just cut them completely out of the loop and take legal action against them.

If ratings are the go dead rubber Rugby Bledisloe got 281,000 views metro and 160,000 regional. Socceroos only got 91k metro last night. Is football on its deathbed?

And at 56% of the population, Perth won't open up to Vic and NSW, Adelaide probably won't be too far behind them. Will Brisbane be as generous to A-League as it has been to the NRL? No travel between Aust and NZ, meaning the Nix might spend another season away from home - hard to see that they could survive another season of that. If all the state governments are committed to opening up in time for Xmas to allow families to re-unite, that might offer some hope to the A-League.

Mid, The 80% figure is unlikely to be reached until well in to December for most states. Then we have the inconvenient truth that 80% = 56% of the total population and any opening up while NSW’s let’s this thing rip is impossible unless other States are prepared for their hospitals to melt down too. I think not. Lockdowns will continue in to 2022 and as AA says, the comp could be/should be divided down in to the clean and the unclean with VIC/NSWs playing each other and everyone else getting on with it. It’s a mess unfortunately

I don't think a delay of a few weeks hurts too much. Importantly, the broadcaster has already said that they are flexible about scheduling, which is a good thing. Speaking of which, first time we had a football game to watch at a good time with our new commercial FTA partner. Rated 91k.

AA Mariners CEO has suggested NSW games will be open to those double jabbed... Its a matter if WA, SA, QLD open their boarders to NSW & VIC teams... The forecast by is by mid Nov say from 19 Nov, the country will be at the 80% figure... play NSW teams in NSW, VIC teams in VIC and have WA play SA... it adds another week... meaning interstate travel on 26 Nov... Comes down then to whether various gov's are going to open up by 26 Nov... looks unlikely at this stage... but there is a greater chance of being open on 26 Nov than 30 October...

we cant afford to keep delaying kick off. re route the fixture list accordingly to suit states that dont have covid issues (brisbane/adelaide/perth/wellington are all capable of playing matches) - those 4 teams could play each other twice nsw and victorian teams can play catch up, as a league we can't keep pandering to victoria and inparticular NSW (which the sport has always done) unfortunately we know who the head of the APL is and the sway he has within the FFA boardroom, so expect the league to be delayed and fixturing to favour NSW even though they have the most covid cases in the nation

Financially a hub would likely kill Wellington, no way they can afford to do it again. But if its only for 6 weeks then i can see it being ok but still a money killer.

This looks the most likely at the moment

Delay re-start by a month to early December and jig the draw so that in first 4 or 5 rounds that the Delta effected states play against each other and non-Delta states play against each other. This just helps to kick the can down the road a little bit further on the big issue of state borders. The longer term issue is how some teams (particularly) Perth Glory are going to operate if they remain in a hard border lockdown/hermit kingdom environment.

Just makes sense to delay by three to four weeks...