AFL considering twilight grand final
Also, even more matches set for Pay TV next year.
- Published by David Knox
- on October 27, 2016
- Filed under News
The AFL is undecided over plans for a twilight Grand Final for 2017.
Seven has long-hoped for a match that crosses into primetime viewing, to avoid the bumper audience numbers remaining technically out of annual ratings share.
Announcing the 2017 fixture today, CEO Gillon McLachlan said he was still undecided about the move. By contrast the NRL Grand Final played at 6:30pm serves Nine very well.
Meanwhile McLachlan also confirmed that Channel TEN would not be taking up an offer to broadcast 11 matches next year, meaning these would be shown only on Pay TV.
The season will feature more Thursday night matches, up from five in 2016 to eight and a Good Friday match to begin late afternoon to avoid clashing with religious ceremonies. That will also be a challenge to Seven’s own Good Friday Appeal in Melbourne, no doubt drawing upon multichannels.
AFL season returns Thursday March 23 2017 with Carlton v Richmond at the MCG.
Source: Fairfax
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- Tagged with AFL, AFL Grand Final, Good Friday Appeal
24 Responses
Maybe Ch 7 should exert their time and money into pressuring for the ratings to reflect real life.
Don’t change things for the sake of ratings – make the ratings more relevant.
I know this is a TV site so I should care about what’s good for ratings but I don’t. I care about a match played under natural light, with people not plastered out of their minds before it even starts, where kids can go into the street and safely play kick-to-kick at half time, where fans are considered ahead of the corporate world for once. Isn’t it crap enough that most of the tickets go to corporate flunkies who can’t name a single player? Ditto Thursday night games – who clamoured for those? Not any fan I ever met. Who wants to go to a night match when they have work the next day? Suck it up Seven and do the right thing by the fans, for once. The TV audience matters but without the fans, you’re stuffed.
Some good points. I think AFL is mindful of this but under pressure to budge.
Was there a reason Nine was not asked to telecast the 11 games?
The reality is there was still maybe 50%-60% of Australia not watching the AFL GF this year.
The reach figure was 6.5 million watching at home (maybe another 2 million watching at pubs/clubs/bars etc)
At least push it back to 4.30 – 7.30 (ideally 6 – 9pm EST) – A far better time to allow more people to tune in across the country.
Heres an idea channel ten:
Buy the a-league rights outright and then threaten to onsell them to Optus. Let’s see how fast Foxtel will want to come to the table on those 11 afl games then.
The pre and mid-match entertainment will naturally improve with a night-time backdrop.
Not a fan of a twilight/night GF, but if it had to happen the AFL needs to bring back a curtain raiser game of football prior to the main game.
News Corp said that they were going to “the highest bidder” for the Saturday twilight games, that never happened. News Corp was asking too much for Ten.
They’re not twilight games on offer though….
TEN are stupid not to show 11 AFL games as this would pull in higher ratings & advertising
If the AFL Grand Final can pull 3.1 million on a Saturday afternoon…
Imagine how it’d rate for Channel 7 at night!
I still think the AFL should keep it as it.
I hope the afl stay with the traditional time. It will still attract a huge audience and advertisers will still pay out large sums. So from a $$$ point of view what will change? A. Nothing, it’s not a major international event, just a local footy code. Also I am getting so fed up of so much sport being played around the world under floodlights, what the hell is wrong with natural light?
Maybe not due to $$$ but sure will add a glow to Seven ‘s ratings report just as NRL does to Nine.
It still rates so can be included in any ratings report, a bit like the Melbourne Cup, which still makes any move irrelevant
We are talking about ‘prime-time’ rating which would count towards how much a network win that evening as a whole. As you’ve said it’s probably not a big deal but it is probably a big deal for Seven. Haven’t you read the recent saga about the breakfast battle and the potential court case between Seven and Nine?
The AFL Good Friday game won’t be a challenge to Seven’s Good Friday Appeal telecast. In fact Seven is happy to show the match and integrate it into the coverage.
The NRL grand final kicked off around 7:30 this year after the pre game entertainment and lots of fill.
I know some people would deplore the idea of prime time GF but from a business point of view for Seven, this is good. Not to mention the amount of money Seven has invested into it. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether it’s shown in morning, afternoon or evening, people will watch the GF.
And I thought it’d be sensible for Ten to acquire those 11 matches – it may help pull in audiences. Is it a money issue?
It will be a question of how much you can leverage off random games for the price involved. Not even sure they are primetime.
Those 11 are Saturday 2.10pm EST games. They were supposed to be 3.20EST but then the AFL didn’t fixture any…..
So with Local teams in NSW, QLD, SA and WA in FTA having Sat Arvo games, will they see 4 games per week?
Local markets still receive 77 games (3.5 per round) on 7.
In SA/WA local sides are on 19 out of 22 games (Fox have 3 exclusive). NSW/Qld sides are on in local markets 22 of 22 games. In essence, markets outside Vic/Tas have 11 rounds of Fri night plus their local sides as the FTA games.
I would have it full night time (between 7:20 pm and 8:10pm AEST for first bounce) and have the whole day set like a Super Bowl game in the NFL in America. Should boost ratings even further. However I feel that the AFL won’t change the Grand Final start time at all.