The A-Leagues need the advertising revenue generated by free-to-air broadcasts on Channel Ten, but the breaks in play to screen ads are starting to attract the wrong kind of attention.
I’m not going to sit here on a website funded by advertising and criticise the A-Leagues for securing some desperately needed broadcast revenue.
When Channel Ten owners ViacomCBS signed a $200 million deal to broadcast the A-Leagues for the next five years they didn’t do so because they’re lifelong football fans. They did it to make money, and running paid advertising during live sporting broadcasts has always been an effective way to ensure a return on investment.
But when the league’s newest cult hero calls the marquee Saturday night men’s fixture “stale” owing to frequent breaks in play, it’s time to acknowledge the A-Leagues have a few issues with advertising.
“It was quite a stale game. I’ve never been at a game where it gets stopped that long,” new Central Coast striker Jason Cummings said in the post-game interview following Melbourne Victory’s last-gasp 1-0 win over the Mariners on Saturday night.
“The VAR takes about ten minutes to stop with that (goal review). He’s (referee Adam Kersey) stopping the game for a commercial break,” said the nonplussed former Hibernian star.
(Photo by Ashley Feder/Getty Images)
And the breaks in play to screen ads on free-to-air broadcasts have been exceedingly obvious, none more so than during Sydney FC’s 1-1 draw with Western United last Saturday when the two teams stopped for drinks breaks amid torrential rain.
That move seemed to catch Sydney FC coach Steve Corica off guard, with the Sky Blues tactician complaining after the match that stopping the game “was for TV”.
Victory coach Tony Popovic was more circumspect after Saturday’s win, with both he and Mariners coach Nick Montgomery acknowledging they’d been informed of the ad breaks at the start of the season.
“The drinks break, whether that’s for TV or not, I think we would all love the game to keep flowing – but we were made aware of this before the season,” Popovic said.
The question is whether these breaks are in keeping with the spirit of the game.
Football Australia doesn’t seem to think so, with Sydney Morning Herald journalist Dom Bossi revealing that the FA’s head of referees, Nathan Magill, would be investigating whether the stoppages conform with FIFA laws.
But from a viewing perspective, the real question is how much these ads are taking away from the game.
Several times this season the Channel Ten broadcast has cut away from the action with commentators Simon Hill and Robbie Thomson mid-sentence.
That might be the price to pay for watching a linear TV broadcast instead of streaming the games on Paramount+, but given how difficult it has at times been to do the latter, you can hardly begrudge fans for simply wanting to switch on the box and settle in for the game.
Surely showing squeezebacks – those in-game ads where the screen is reduced and the advertising runs as a graphic along the border – is a less intrusive way of running advertising.
The ad debate rounded out a ho-hum weekend for the A-League men capped off by Ben Garuccio’s spectacular scorpion kick in Western United’s 3-2 win over Western Sydney Wanderers on Sunday night.
It should have been the easiest goal in the world to share across social media, but by the time the official A-League account did so on Twitter – almost 40 minutes after the fact – the video had already been viewed tens of thousands of times on The Real ALM account.
And of course they were forced to take it down – which meant that instead of admiring Garuccio’s outrageous skill, the thousands of people who retweeted it across the globe were now staring at a blank screen.
These aren’t difficult things to get right.
This might be a transitional season for the A-Leagues, but it’d be nice if that transition were a little bit more accommodating of fans.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Apparently the one match on free to air a week 1/6th of the A-league content, is making the majority of 16 million dollars in advertising revenue . That would make it Tens most profitable program.
Ac
Guest
My biggest surprise is why would anyone want to advertise on channel Ten on a Saturday night. There are not many eyes watching. Ten is taking on water fast - sorry Football isn’t rating.
Stewbydew
Roar Rookie
We dont have any commercials during afl games in America during the game, after goals. Only between the quarters. Sad that we get a better version of the broadcast than the locals. And most of the cricket I've watched has one commercial after each over but its obvious the broadcast doesn't have commercials after every over, just espn+ or willow adding them in
Kewell
Roar Rookie
Paramount has to get a return on their investment. Better them than Channel 7. A channel that bought the right to the old NSL and then refused to televise it live. Of course they also had AFL in their stable. Enough said.
Kewell
Roar Rookie
Oh for the return of the great Frank Lowy and Santo, Sam and Ed.. where did it all go wrong.
Baggio
Guest
Paramount is a joke. I have given up watching any games on tv. Had to watch the last 20 min of yesterdays Glory game outside on my phone. It really deters me watching any other games not involving glory. In my opinion Stan have recruited a better footballing team than paramount. Vince Rugari, Boz and Foz are interesting to listen to and for comedic relief Ed and Max Rushden are quite entertaining. Given they only have the champions league, if they actually acquired the A-league, I think they would of done a better job at promoting it and making it more interesting.
Para+Ten ISUZU Subway support Australian Football
Roar Rookie
Thank you FiL, I appreciate your comment. :thumbup:
Marcel
Guest
Banner or Side bar adds....with a subscription option to turn them off.....seems to work well enough with free software.
chris
Guest
Good story jb :)
Franko
Guest
Paramount execs: "So you are telling me there is a need to pause and rewind games? Our research is telling us the consumer would like replays uploaded almost immediately I mean honestly...
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Being on the main channel means little these days, when it was on 10 before they had the Foxtel commentary but because there was no promotion the ratings were non existent worse than Foxtel. When it started on SBS they had their own commentary that other people hated, I couldn't care less, so which is it you preferred SBS or Fox .
NoMates
Roar Rookie
Look this is what you get when you have/need to survive. Im all for it.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
someone buy that man a cleansing beverage. I agree, I support and Im impressed with your thinking
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
concur, but read the rest. What you set up in Scandinavia is different to what you set up in the U.S., and it's different again in Australia. This country has more red tape, standards and hoops to jump through than a lot of countries. When you factor in state and federal governments, industry standards etc etc, it's a minefield
Para+Ten ISUZU Subway support Australian Football
Roar Rookie
Mike – I never miss the ALM 10TV main broadcast coverage. I have no issues with it; I think it’s outstanding, commercials and all—the lot. Jason Cummings, had a stinker of a game and it clearly came across in his frustration, of how poorly he performed on the night. However, on the other hand, the game was a real nail biter and an arm wrestle. I thought the football experience and atmosphere was outstanding. CBS are doing a find job, but what we need now, is a 10TV 1hr, Sunday midday football discussion show, with highlights.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
Stu, I have the NHL app and the 10 minute highlight packages serve up all I need. Nil ads. Nobody can watch all A-League matches live in one weekend, they minis are excellent. I really am starting to think that sometimes we dont appreciate our good fortune. But in defence of the argument, I fully disagree with drinks breaks, time outs or any other variation. This is football. Not RL, AFL or any other sport.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
Fox Sports had the "squeezebacks" with small Maccas logos in the bottom corner of the screen. Etc i would say that is the most likely scenaro of 'having your cake and eating it too'
Munro Mike
Roar Rookie
You've got only so much "contra" component of the broadcast deal to work with. It's not like there's any clear winner program 'vehicles' that Ch.10 can repackage and run with. If you aren't getting the big numbers for the actual games - - then what hope to sell a 'behind the scenes' show? The peripheral programs arguably would rate less.........unless you managed something like the "Front Bar" or back in the day - the Footy Show. But again.........would it be enough and would it jeopardise advertising/promotions that might already be part of the contra arrangement??
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
Exactly. If an Australian broadcaster was to set up in the U.S. I would suggest that to become completely aware of U.S. culture in the short term would not be a realistic expectation. Conversely, I would suggest that Para + are still "settling in" and learning about a foreign market.
Franko
Guest
I don't understand how this narrative has life complaints are not necessarily warranted considering they are building from the ground up Its not really ground up is it? Isn't Paramount both a rebadge of 10 All Access and they have an existing product in the states. A quick look at Wiki tells me they have 32+ million subscribers globally and are up to 7 years old.