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AFL rights in election bargaining

The Federal Government is reportedly doing a sweet AFL deal with News Limited interest Foxtel in exchange for good election coverage.

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With an August election on the cards, the Sydney Morning Herald today reports that the Federal Government is planning to give News Limited interest Foxtel a sweet AFL deal in exchange for good coverage.

News Limited owns 25% of Foxtel and 50% of FOX Sports.

Senator Conroy’s office and the AFL are close to reaching accord on an arrangement where free-to-air TV will be allocated picks one, two, five and six of the eight games staged each week, leaving Foxtel picks three, four, seven and eight.

But that could drop the anticipated $1B pricetag the AFL wants.

Channels Seven and TEN, which have an ironclad agreement both must bid for AFL rights together, are expected to win the free-to-air auction against Nine. Nine may also bid up the price Seven and TEN pays, leaving TEN with no money to launch a strike for the three free-to-air NRL games, which come on the block at the end of the 2012 season.

There is still no clarity on when the results of the Anti-Siphoning Review will be released or even if it will be before an election.

Source: smh.com.au

23 Responses

  1. Hopefully the anti-siphoning changes allow the FTA channels to show “named” sports on their secondary channels. This would overcome the issue of delayed telecasts into Perth etc. It may also allow many more live games into Melbourne though you’d have to wonder at what point the AFL may be concerned about a drop in crowd attendances. The NRL doesn’t have to worry about crowds because no-one goes anyway!!

  2. What ever happens, 7 must not be allowed to bid in the next rights deal. Friday night games here in Western Australia do not even start until the game is finished and Melbourne even has to put up with delay. Pathetic. Coupled with their poor picture and sound quality, they must be an embarrassment to the AFL. Would be happy to see all games on One/Foxtel and maybe 9 although I would be worried about 9’s ability to deliver live coverage in all AFL states. Live coverage must be mandatory in the next rights deal.

  3. According to the media reports Fetch TV, an internet TV provider, gets the 9th game.

    If this type of deal were done with the NRL I wouldn’t stand for it at all. Forcing people to sign up with an internet TV provider simply to watch one game per week. This is ridiculous to the extreme.

    But it’s not the NRL, it’s the AFL – so I don’t mind. But I’m sure there’s plenty of people out there who would be annoyed if their team was playing the Black Swans or the Gold Coast Hunt and couldn’t see it on Foxtel or FTA.

  4. I think Rupert would rather eat broken glass, excrete it, then eat it again to give Rudd favourable coverage, whether he got a few AFL games or not.

  5. the Sydney Morning Herald article was written by Roy Masters – a Sydney NRL writer. No offence to Roy, but his insights into the world of AFL are hardly reliable. None of this info has been reported by AFL journalists in Melbourne, and until then, I’ll take anything Roy “NRL Grand Final outrated AFL” Masters says with a grain of salt

  11. I don’t mind football on Foxtel. It leaves the FTA for dead.
    No annoying ads after every goal. No annoying commentators talking about other things other than the game or attempting to be funny.
    As the saying goes you get what you pay for, and with FTA that certainly is true.
    Live football on FTA – Your dreaming.

  12. I read somewhere a while ago (can’t remember where) that TEN execs are desperate to ditch the Saturday night AFL in NSW & QLD. They are getting killed in the ratings and may go after in NRL instead and drop AFL completely.

  13. *sigh* why do people always bring up the friday night game live argument.

    when 9 had the rights to friday night, they didnt play it live, and if they got it again, i cant see them playing it live if they get the rights back….

    BTW David- i know this is kinda off topic, but is there any chance that Melbourne could get a better deal on the NRL in 2012? im guessing that 10 deal is for sydney, but i hope that melbourne could get a similar deal that WA and SA get for their teams -aka all of them live.

  14. Why can’t Seven, Nine and Ten just share the rights?!
    I know that it will never happen but bloody hell, it would be good for all of us if they did! Annoying when ya game is on Foxtel and you only see not even a minute of footage in the news!

  15. A key to the next agreement will be whether free-to-air channels are allowed to broadcast games on their second channel as apposed to being mandated to show only on their main channel. This easing of rules would allow more live or near live games in the northern states.

  19. Give all sport to Ten/ONE. Although ABC and SBS are quite good with sports coverage also.

    Nine and Seven deserve bugger all. Really would’ve loved to have watched the Titans win last night but starting at 2am i kinda fell asleep at the 50th minute. Nine have a second channel why not put NRL on earlier for those of us in other states!

  23. David, the article is written by Fairfax hack Roy Masters and is clearly biased against News Corp. Would News really base their coverage of Rudd on what AFL and NRL games end up on Fox Sports/Foxtel? Hardly! I suggest that both Fairfax and News will be against Rudd being re-elected, no matter what the anti-siphoning decision is. And Rudd hinted on Thursday that the election may be in April, not August.

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