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AFL, NRL in talks with Google, Netflix.

Sports codes talk to streaming and digital players, tipped to potentially offer replays.

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Both the AFL and NRL have reportedly met with Netflix, Fetch TV and Google in recent weeks, as they pursue lucrative broadcasting deals.

Current AFL rights with Seven, Foxtel and Telstra expire at the end of 2016 and NRL with Nine, FOX Sports, and Telstra in 2017.

The Australian Financial Review suggests digital companies would not win rights to stream live matches but potentially join with existing broadcasters and offer replays on-demand.

Former Foxtel CEO, now an AFL commissioner Kim Williams, suggests streaming players may not play a significant role until the next rights deal. “Television as we know it will change completely in the next decade,” he said.

Meanwhile TEN CEO Hamish McLennan tells AFR that Google is a major threat to broadcasters.

“They have got deeper pockets than all of us and I think that is part of their mission. They have got virtually unlimited resources and they can afford to lose money to achieve a commercial outcome over time. It’s reasonable to think Google now or in three years’ time is a real live competitor for sports,” he said.

13 Responses

  1. They will have a sniff but ultimately this would not work out.
    Netflix almost broke our internet, streaming our major sporting codes would kill it.
    With the NBN being watered down and continuously delayed as politicians fight with each other, we don’t have the infrastructure to support this.

    Maybe during the rights agreements after these ones.

    1. What our gov should of done was pay Google to put there network in, that’s 1000mb per second instead of 100 and be out dated once we shift to 4k and above. Labour wasted millions and put us more into debt

  2. I’m a big fan of NRL but there video and replay support is there biggest problem. For years I’ve thought since we wanted to grow the game why not put highlights and replays on Youtube instead of just on BigPond website were the video player is bugged and looks terrible.
    So I’m all for this, makes sense netflix getting the old origin games or something. But they need to get more Into youtube and such and grow the game.
    Go raiders

  3. And all we want is Ten to win back the AFL rights for 2017-21. Ten has been struggling in terms of ratings and will need premium sports to boost the ratings. For ten’s AFL coverage, we need Friday Night Football & Sunday AFL. I would like other telecommunication partners (Optus, Vodafone, Virgin) put in a bid for the STV & or streaming rights.

  4. There are already free options for watching replays online of afl matches but they are not full screen and are delayed 12-24hours. Sure availability of afl replays need to be improved but wouldn’t be interested in paying for a subscription service that only offered afl matches on replay. There needs to be more options than just Foxtel and Telstra for live matches. That being said would be least likely to take up a streaming service offered through google if it required providing personal information to google due to privacy concerns.

    1. Really? Ur already owned by Google, do u use gmail, utube, uber or buy anything of the web? Then they already have ur info, all websites are selling ur info. Ever seen ads that match what u were searching the day before. I get that every day.
      Sorry about the rant. I don’t like Google at all but I accept it

      1. There’s still a difference between using google services with a google account where a user has provided them with personal information and using google services without a google account.

  5. Would love to see the non-Telstra telco’s currently partnered with Fetch (& Netflix ie Optus, iiNet, Internode etc) put in a bid for the STV &/or streaming rights. With the rate technology is changing when the rights are up again 2021 I think viewers will be wanting more than what current broadcasters can offer. I can’t see how FTA or Foxtel will increase broadcasting standards on current platforms easily whereas Fetch already streams ESPN in better quality than FTA HD achieves, and Netflix currently having the ability to stream 4K.

    1. If fetch wants to chase things like streaming rights than they need to offer more than ios and android apps to link to the fetch box. Last night I wanted to watch Roger Federer in the atp tennis final on espn but the match didn’t start till 9pm and it was too cold to stay up. If I owned an ios or selected android device I would’ve been able to watch it away from the fetch box but because I don’t and there is no option to link fetch to a pc than I missed out.

        1. Its been very cold in Melbourne that last few nights. A heater can only do so much.

          In regards to fetch its about having options and not having reduced functionality just because you don’t own a specified device or are with a particular isp.

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