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Arsenal versus Manchester United was broadcast live on Pay-TV in the United Kingdom. So too was Manchester City’s clash with West Ham. And while the BBC still broadcasts Match Of The Day, the vast majority of live English football has long been available only to those who pay for it.
If you can stomach Gary Lineker’s inane grin and Alan Hansen’s excruciatingly smug demeanour on your next trip to the UK, the BBC’s Match Of The Day is a wonderful means of catching all the goals flying in throughout the English top flight.
Crucially, the program is broadcast on the same night games take place and watching the highlights late on a Saturday or Sunday is somewhat of a ritual for legions of English football fans.
A similar program would be wonderful for the A-League, even if it’s impossible to replicate the naughty school-boy approach of Lineker and his giggling companions.
But obstacles in the A-League are many and I can’t see a free-to-air TV deal being struck any time soon.
We all know Fox Sports hold exclusive rights to broadcast A-League games and in my opinion that’s something they do extremely well.
We’re also familiar with the clamour from fans for some sort of free-to-air TV agreement, whether that’s one live game per week or merely a highlights package.
But the sticking point – aside from the fact Fox Sports essentially subsidise the A-League and are understandably reluctant to give away their own product – is that no free-to-air network has shown a willingness to stump up some cash and actually pay for it.
And that includes SBS.
As a long-time devotee with plenty of friends at the network, I’d enjoy watching the A-League on SBS as much as any fan.
But it seems to me the Special Broadcasting Service are quite happy to sit back and propagate the myth they’re interested in broadcasting the A-League, when it’s all too apparent they have neither the funds and perhaps not even the will to do so.
And those who insist the A-League ‘must’ be broadcast on SBS miss the point that somewhere along the lines, someone needs to pay for the rights.
Otherwise, the danger is that we end up with no product to broadcast at all.
That’s obviously why the A-League’s next TV broadcast deal is so vital and why analysts are starting to get itchy fingertips over Football Federation Australia chief Ben Buckley’s ability to negotiate a suitable deal.
According to press reports he’s already turned down a 2009 offer of at least $42 million per season, apparently in the belief he can negotiate a better deal.
One would hope he can, although Fox Sports have reputedly come back and suggested those figures were grossly overvalued and they’re no longer willing to pay anywhere near as much.
Whatever Fox Sports and their Premier Media Group owners decide future A-League TV rights are worth, it will be a lot more than free-to-air networks are currently willing to cough up, which seems to be the grand total of zero.
In an ideal world, free-to-air TV rights would offer the A-League much-needed exposure and help the game grow.
But we don’t live in an ideal world, we live in one where TV broadcast rights are packaged and sold to the highest bidder.
So unless a free-to-air network suddenly uncovers a long-lost treasure chest of gold, not to mention a sudden appreciation for the round-ball game, the future of A-League broadcasts appears to be on Fox Sports.
That’s the double-edged nature of Pay-TV.
When they’re the only broadcasters willing and able to pay for football coverage, it’s invariably the fans who have to to dig deep into their pockets to help pay the high production costs that such coverage entails.