Woe For Sydney AFL Supporters If Nine Wins the TV Rights
The Nine TV network has thrown a grenade into the AFL TV rights negotiations with a bid of $780M. This is around $200M more than rival channels Seven & 10's combined bid. Will Seven & 10 come to the party and match it?
Frankly, I hope they do. Besides the question of whether it's healthy to have one network control the broadcasting of so much free to air sport, there's also the issue of whether it's in AFL's best interests to give the rights to a Sydney based organisation that doesn't have the code's interests at heart.
Nine is unashamedly Rugby League centric.
Nine holds the current AFL broadcast rights (with channel 10) and outflanked the AFL when it came to broadcasting Friday night AFL games in Sydney and Brisbane. The AFL (stupidly) didn't tie them down to broadcast the match at a reasonable hour. Whereas they could have shown it straight after the Rugby League game at 9.30pm, Nine chose to show it after 11.00pm.
In contrast, channel 10 broadcast Friday and Saturday night Swans and Lions games into the respective home cities.
The Seven & 10 offer includes the proposal to show games live every Friday and Saturday night on free to air TV in Sydney and Brisbane. This is in the game's best interests, as the extra exposure would help consolidate the code in those cities. If Nine wins the gig, there's the risk that these games will only be available to Foxtel subscribers.
The AFL should keep in mind that Nine has done it no favours when it comes to promoting the game in Rugby League land. They should look at the greater good of the game before automatically accepting the highest monitory bid.
Elsewhere: Liam says much the same thing at Stoush.
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Totally agree with the comments about Nine's disinterest in AFL in the Northern States. Not one minute of promotion of AFL was to be seen last year. Even when Brisbane played Sydney on the Sunday there was no mention of it even being on air. We were flooded with ads for the delayed coverage of the RL instead.
Coincidentally, the true Rugby League followers are also fed up with Nine's coverage as well as they are also treated with contempt.
Rumour has it that the 7&10 networks will find the extra cash but it will be at the expense of the live coverage on Friday and Staurday nights as they will no longer be able to afford to take a "hit" on those nights with decreased advertising revenue.
Bottom line is that no matter who wins, the Northern States lose out again. All we can ask is that if the matches are shown at midnight etc that we are not given the scores beforehand, or is that too sensible?
Thanks very much Mr Demetriou for once again not looking at the big picture.