UPDATED: The A-Leagues’ organisers are reeling again with their broadcast partner going into administration.
Former broadcasters NEP stepped in to bail out the A-Leagues as the competitions were in danger of an Easter weekend TV blackout after this season’s production partners Global Advance were placed into voluntary administration.
The Australian Professional Leagues (APL) were forced into a scramble on Tuesday when Global Advance (GA) notified them of their inability to produce broadcasts of this weekend’s matches and their intention to enter into administration.
A deal with NEP was finalised late Thursday hours before Central Coast Mariners and Western United met in A-League Women.
“We have reached agreement with NEP Australia to produce all A-League Men and A-League Women matches for the remainder of the regular season and the 2024 final series,” the APL said in a statement on Thursday.
“We thank them for their cooperation, flexibility and expertise at such short notice.”
Unlike most other codes in Australia, the A-Leagues pay roughly $12 million for the production of their games which are then broadcast on Network Ten and Paramount+.
GA was founded in 2021 and the deal with the A-Leagues was its first major contract, the latter hoping that partnering with a start-up would help lessen costs.
The APL is believed to be up to $1 million out of pocket after already agreeing to advance payments to GA before it was placed into administration.
“We are disappointed in the manner in which this has come to our attention, and the risk this has placed on our fan, player, club, broadcast and commercial commitments,” the APL said in a statement released late on Wednesday.
“We have been let down, and will be working with the administrators to recoup monies owing to APL.”
The APL has endured a tough year with several public relations disasters. It made half of its workforce redundant, decimated its digital arm and KeepUp app and website, and faces financial issues at several clubs.
As part of their broadcast contract with Ten-Paramount, the APL are responsible for the production of A-League matches. There have been issues over coverage standards – and the poor quality of the Paramount experience.
The APL has been unable to guarantee that matches will be shown as per schedule, but are “confident” they will be.
“Through a lot of hard work by a new production company, Ten-Paramount, and our team, we are close to finalising an agreement and are confident all matches will be broadcast, starting (Thursday),” an APL spokesman said.
“There are many challenges that such a short time frame presents, but we are working through this urgently with all of our stakeholders, and we thank the production company for their co-operation, flexibility and expertise at such short notice.
“Finally, we want to acknowledge all of the great staff at GA, along with their suppliers, that have been impacted by this. They have played a big role in bringing A-Leagues football to screens over the past few years and we are thinking of them through this tough time.”
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
But as just advertised on P+ there are 89 games of football in 30 days, Asian Champions League, Matildas, Scottish Cup, FA Cup, U23's Asian Cup, A-League M and W remaining rounds and finals, so for the football purist , this is just getting better and better. Sadly, the perception that football is the EPL and only the EPL shows that there needs to be rigourous advancement in football education in this country and, the Football Australia are subject to media bias and are, in a lot cases, relying on word of mouth outside 10's FTA games to raise awareness.
Christo the Daddyo
Roar Rookie
Trouble typing chris1?
Stevo
Roar Rookie
Oh, hope the Easter bunny has left you some chocolate pellets :thumbup: :thumbup:
Stevo
Roar Rookie
OK, queue for autographs at AAMI last night would have been very thin. City's inability to break down teams that defend for their lives is like a pimple of a bottom. Just constantly giving you grief. What a dire performance from the CFG owned outfit :crying: Well done Jets, I wish you had scored last night and taken all point :laughing: :laughing:
chris1
Roar Rookie
lol - what matters is old men watching Fox and Channel 9. Now there's a metric that tells you the health of a game.
Waz
Roar Rookie
Not sure we lose “top youngsters” to AFL/NRL as some people think. At U13 we have players streamed in to development pathways and within a couple of years it’s hard to bring in good sports players from other codes because they’re two years or more behind in basic ball skills. Where we do need to compete is within schools. That’s where we can pick up - or retain - good sports people imo
Waz
Roar Rookie
Optus has the EPL rights until 2028, if they are sold you can pretty much guarantee new owners will want to keep the EPL but I agree with you - if P+ could get the EPL it would be a game changer The two biggest streaming platforms for Sport are Kayo and Optus Sport both with over a million subscribers. Nothing else is close. With AFL/NRL Kayo gets about 1.3m, with mainly the EPL Optus gets similar. Let that sink in for a minute: where are all the football fans? Mainly on Optus for the EPL
Grem
Roar Rookie
That was so good to see. Every club should do that every week. The game is nothing without the fans and the little kids are the ones that are most happy and we most want - even though participation doesn’t matter!
Grem
Roar Rookie
He’s gotta get some Socceroos time in our next window. Playing for a short spell against Bangladesh and Palestine would be useful. Cap him!
Nat
Roar Guru
It's called due diligence. You assess the potential partner for financial viability and term capability before you get involved with them. When you accept the lowest bid without this you are effectively throwing your money into their black hole.
chris1
Roar Rookie
He's such a handful. His speed and quickness of feet are top shelf. I also think Irankunda doesn't get a fair go from ref's. He cops a lot of fouls and yet they wave play on. But as soon as he does something they are onto him. Almost goading him into working his way into a red card.
chris1
Roar Rookie
"I’ll comment wherever I want champ". Daddyo you really are a champion bo gan.
Grem
Roar Rookie
Risdon - though he was a rough one!
Grem
Roar Rookie
I will, but only if the guys at the pub think I should.
Grem
Roar Rookie
I think that’s part of the “problem’” now! People’s expectations have changed. They have forgotten that making a World Cup of football is already a great achievement. Mixing it with the best players in the world of football is something to be cherished. While it is good to have expectations, people now dismiss the team if they don’t make the next round! A lot of people just don’t realise how tough it is to succeed in football. And how good was the game last night - Irankunda will hopefully be doing that for the Socceroos soon. As I wrote -,keep posting. We need positives.
ASFC
Roar Rookie
Spot on..no matter what the FA will never get a fair share of funds. Look at last year's women's World Cup..the sport was a smash hit across the entire country and this was their reward..the government of the day announces a 200m fund to all women's sport..talk about pissing on the football community nation wide..After this year's 2024 AFL Grand Final I'm expecting the money generated from that event to then be given to the FA..yeah right!
ASFC
Roar Rookie
Thanks Football is life.
ASFC
Roar Rookie
Thanks Grem. ???? I think people have forgotten what it meant when JA scored that pen to put Australia into the WC..at that time we all witnessed a once in a life time moment..No one believed we would qualify again after that..But since that moment look what the FA has done..we haven't missed a beat since. If you were to tell me we would qualify for every WC up to now since that pen moment, I would've laughed at you. The idea that football's future is bleak and it's about to go broke etc is absolute rubbish.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
Queue for autographs at Hindmarsh tonight looks HUGE!!!
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Have you considered how much A-league All Access cost and is costing and who is paying for it? Now its reduced to 7min instead of 30min and its not on Paramount so that must mean APL must have paid for it and done some cost cutting. At least Paramount/Channel 10 are paying for something the commentators. Which leaves the other mystery the Paramount player index. Hopefully as its called the Paramount player index they are paying for it, there is no way this can be cheap to produce it would require a team watching the game and recording the stats live. How dumb would it be if the APL were paying for it and it cost as much as VAR if not more.