How Eddie McGuire and Amazon could shake up the AFL on TV

[Capriati]

How Eddie McGuire and Amazon could shake up the AFL on TV

The AFL's television landscape is set for a shake-up after global streaming giant Amazon agreed to a $10 million deal with Collingwood president Eddie McGuire’s media company.

www.theage.com.au

“The six club figures will be the senior coach, president, chief executive, a senior player, a player in the middle of his career and a junior player.

Sydney are one of several clubs who have shown interest, including Richmond, Carlton, West Coast, Gold Coast and GWS.”

Interesting that west coast was approached, and are considering, being involved in this.

I Have always felt that we could do better at engaging footy community/fans and opening the club up. In my opinion, We have never been great at telling our story.

I think it would be a great idea for us to pursue.

Which players should be involved?

Mine would be:

Kennedy
Kelly
Brander


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[squashface]

Foxtel would be livid with Eddie

 

[Capriati]

Foxtel would be livid with Eddie

Apparently they are. They even called an exec meeting with the AFL over it.

Not to mention the pies footy department and players said they aren’t keen to be involved.


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[FatPizza]

Anything that *s with channel 7's AFL coverage is getting off on the right foot with me.

 

[HoneyBadger35]

Would be great. The NFL’s Hard Knocks series and all the various soccer documentaries Amazon have made are terrific, so if they’re in that same style then sign me up.

 

[Chris_6678]

Wish we had more docos on AFL so this would be a great idea.

 

[CM9000]

I'm not so sure about this. I mean, does it have to be Amazon? Couldn't we do it with an Australian company instead? I'm not keen on Amazon monopolising every aspect of life.

 

[Chris_6678]

I wish Foxtel would get on board with making these documentary. It makes the off season more bearable with repeats of games from the following years. Each week they could chose an epic match from a particular year and get past players to give their thoughts on the game plus build up ect.

 

[TY24]

Sounds like a great idea. I’m super keen to see ‘The Test’ when it comes out and I imagine these will follow a similar format.

Anything that features behind the scenes footage from the inner sanctum is a tick from me.

 

[Hap Hapablap]

if amazon jumps on streaming the game it effectively ends foxtels stranglehold on the game and either kill it off or change their attitude.

fox would be furious. but * them

 

[hudson2006]

I'm not so sure about this. I mean, does it have to be Amazon? Couldn't we do it with an Australian company instead? I'm not keen in Amazon monopolising every aspect of life.

Someone get on the phone to Michael Schneider! We could have a Bunnings streaming service with elite sport + BBQ cooking + home improvement content!

 

[bzparkes]

Foxtel are s**t anyway. Fox Footy is rubbish and their panels are crap. Not worth the price at all.

 

[Balls In]

Foxtel is destroying sport in this country. Anything that damages them is fine by me.

 

[Scotland]

if amazon jumps on streaming the game it effectively ends foxtels stranglehold on the game and either kill it off or change their attitude.

fox would be furious. but fu** them

It's just a doco. Fox/7/Telstra still own the rights to televise games which is the real prize. Look at the NBA, it's on multiple national broadcasters and there are regional broadcasters, plus there are a million different shows where people talk about it. There are Youtube commentators who post videos on a daily basis that get 1m+ views. A lot of it is effectively free publicity for the league and its broadcasters.

The danger for the AFL and their current broadcasters is how they separate the streaming rights compared to everything else. There's no way 7 and Fox are going to pay $400m a year for Amazon or Optus or whoever to come along and just stream their content cheaply. Any AFL game on Kayo or the AFL app via Telstra is still Fox/7 product as it stands now. Plus Kayo is just a Fox product and Telstra owns 35% of Fox so they are all in it together.

Will the AFL push to keep all the rights together or separate them further? Will they be open to a streaming partner producing their own live content? Will we go down the path where clubs have local broadcasters?

 

[Scotland]

Foxtel is destroying sport in this country by taking it away from grassroots. Fancy the games custodians even contemplating putting their games behind a paywall? Anything that damages them is fine by me.

Remind me again how much A-League/NSL, Super Rugby, cricket played outside Australia etc. was broadcast on FTA TV before Foxtel came along?

Wasn't that long ago Channel 7 actively bought the NSL TV rights then showed almost 0 FTA content. Let's not pretend the FTA networks have anything at heart except their own bottom line. Do people really want to go back to your only option being Friday night footy at 8.30 after the game was long finished and then Sunday Eagles games starting at 4.30 so you had to watch the news in the middle? I mean the greatest Ashes series of my lifetime was on SBS because none of the commercial networks valued it as content worth showing.

The split model works well. Pumps money into the game (not really important to the fans) and gives multiple games per week on FTA in preferable time slots. The next challenge is what happens when streaming really takes off. Digital content rights have been an afterthought in most negotiations previously.

 

[Bleedblueandgold]

Mine would be
Kennedy
Yeo
Allen

 

[Bleedblueandgold]

Wouldn't mind local broadcasters that much seeing how anti-Eagles most commentators are.

 

[Goroyals22]

Foxtel is destroying sport in this country. Anything that damages them is fine by me.

Not sure if serious...
Foxtel is a godsend to anyone who enjoys sport in this country. Live Footy, Live Cricket, Live MotoGP live almost anything. The best channel 7 can do is keep tryng to do is flap on about live and free as if its their service to the world. They can get stuffed.

 

[TY24]

Foxtel is destroying sport in this country. Anything that damages them is fine by me.

On the contrary; I’d argue that Foxtel is the only thing keeping lower audience sports such as the A-League and Supercars going. Both would’ve folded years ago without the money Foxtel has invested in them.

 

[Balls In]

Not sure if serious...
Foxtel is a godsend to anyone who enjoys sport in this country. Live Footy, Live Cricket, Live MotoGP live almost anything. The best channel 7 can do is keep tryng to do is flap on about live and free as if its their service to the world. They can get stuffed.

Yep, serious. Foxtels paywalling of cricket (ie no ODIs) and AFL is a f'ing disgrace. AFL on delay is a f'ing disgrace, not just because of the delay but also the crap quality of the broadcast and the propensity of Ch7 to cut the Foxtel feed 10 seconds after the final siren.

On the contrary; I’d argue that Foxtel is the only thing keeping lower audience sports such as the A-League and Supercars going. Both would’ve folded years ago without the money Foxtel has invested in them.

Like most people I couldn't care less about those sports. Foxtel can have them

 

[Scotland]

It's a balance between money and exposure. The current AFL TV rights deal is worth $423m a year with Foxtel paying $217m of that and Telstra $50m. Even if Channel 7 could come up with the whole lot themselves, they wouldn't pay it and they don't want all the content anyway.

People who fawn over the good old days of free footy should watch the Olympics. Even showing sport almost exclusively for two weeks they still manage to miss most of it and drown you in ads and replays.

 

[TY24]

Yep, serious. Foxtels paywalling of cricket (ie no ODIs) and AFL is a f'ing disgrace

What do you mean paywalling?

In previous rights deals we saw games go completely untelevised. If Foxtel didn’t fork out the cash to broadcast all 9 games, there’s no way in hell would 7 pick up the remaining 5 games. We’d still have untelevised games without Foxtel.

Same as limited overs international cricket; 7 weren’t willing to pay the extra cash for white ball cricket.

 

[Goroyals22]

And you should be thankful that foxtel agrees to show foxtel Eagles games in wa whether live or delayed... victorian viewers arent so lucky to get all their teams on free to air every week... flip to the Nrl and the broncos, titans or whoever if they arent free to air dont get shown in queensland by 9. Its the way its heading and id much rather have anthony hudson or adam papalia calling my footy than bt, bruce, james or flipping basil.


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[Scotland]

Yep, serious. Foxtels paywalling of cricket (ie no ODIs) and AFL is a f'ing disgrace. AFL on delay is a f'ing disgrace, not just because of the delay but also the crap quality of the broadcast and the propensity of Ch7 to cut the Foxtel feed 10 seconds after the final siren.

AFL isn't on delay on Foxtel. Which is why people like it. Some games broadcast by Foxtel live are also shown on delay on FTA into WA. In other states those games aren't on FTA at all.

The rights are only worth what they are worth because of pay TV subscriptions. The AFL want to make as much money as they can while maintaining an FTA presence. The FTA networks want to pick and choose and pay accordingly. Fox want to broadcast everything and operate within the landscape of anti-siphoning provisions.

Like most people I couldn't care less about those sports. Foxtel can have them

Plenty of people don't care about the AFL or football in general. Most people in Brisbane and Sydney don't even care if the Lions/Swans are playing let alone the other 8 games per round. Should they get all NRL or A-League games on FTA instead?

 

[Hap Hapablap]

It's just a doco. Fox/7/Telstra still own the rights to televise games which is the real prize. Look at the NBA, it's on multiple national broadcasters and there are regional broadcasters, plus there are a million different shows where people talk about it. There are Youtube commentators who post videos on a daily basis that get 1m+ views. A lot of it is effectively free publicity for the league and its broadcasters.

The danger for the AFL and their current broadcasters is how they separate the streaming rights compared to everything else. There's no way 7 and Fox are going to pay $400m a year for Amazon or Optus or whoever to come along and just stream their content cheaply. Any AFL game on Kayo or the AFL app via Telstra is still Fox/7 product as it stands now. Plus Kayo is just a Fox product and Telstra owns 35% of Fox so they are all in it together.

Will the AFL push to keep all the rights together or separate them further? Will they be open to a streaming partner producing their own live content? Will we go down the path where clubs have local broadcasters?

i know its a doco but it is setting a platform for the next tv rights. pretty sure streaming will become the norm in the next decade. look at optus for example and the soccer it shows. literally picking up every league who knows if they will also pick up serie a la liga and such in years to come.