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

[Smeg Head]

Changing one scumbag billionare in Murdoch for another one in Bezos, still if the coverage is less vic ******* centric then hurray,

 

[Yippy Yi Yeo]

Changing one scumbag billionare in Murdoch for another one in Bezos, still if the coverage is less vic ******* centric then hurray,

at least it would stop the outright monopoly, a bit of competition would be good for the consumer at the end of the day. As it stands fox just sit on their ass and continue doing things the way they've been doing them for years while cashing cheques, it will force them to re evaluate the product they put out and the way in which they go about it.

 

[Ishmael_]

Apparently they will focus on Nic Nat which i'm sure will fill our purple friends' hearts with joy.

Just wait until the Freo board works out that in addition to $Channel Eagle$ we also have Bezos in our pockets.

 

[flamingEMBERS]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't 7 bid for the footy and then sold games to Fox and Telstra as opposed to it being bought in a partnership?

 

[Capriati]

Apparently we are all in and our focus will be on NicNat.

"Amazon wants all 18 clubs to be part of a football documentary series in a deal with the AFL and McGuire Media.

The move comes as premiership coach Adam Simpson confirmed that West Coast had been in talks with the tech giants, with ruckman Nic Naitanui the focus."

Amazon want all AFL clubs in documentary series

Further details are emerging as to what tech giant Amazon's plans are for the documentary series on the AFL.

www.theage.com.au

 

[Coasters7]

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.

Fox have got in early though with Kayo, and Telstra (who own a third of Fox anyway) got in with the free AFL app streaming. They’re all in on it together so it’ll be hard to snatch it free.

Also, as much as Fox Footy is a pile of garbage I do prefer only having to pay for one subscription for all my sports. If Amazon got footy it’d be the same as Optus taking the premier league, just a pain in the arse. Although.. a bit of competition for Fox would be good but I’d rather they tried to take the whole lot if they were going to do it at all.

 

[Scotland]

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.

If streaming becomes the norm then the value of streaming rights will go up. Optus in terms of the EPL and UEFA CL just rebroadcast content that is produced by someone else. They choose to offer a streaming service because they are a Telco and not a terrestrial broadcaster. I think people should be careful what they wish for when it comes to streaming. The 2018 World Cup ended up back on SBS because Optus couldn't handle live streaming sport that a lot of people wanted to watch during prime time. Infrastructure will improve with time, but there are far more people who can watch HD TV without issue from the co-ax plug in the wall than can stream it from the phone socket.

The AFL split currently is roughly 50/40/10 between Fox (pay TV), 7 (FTA) and Telstra (digital). An ambitious streaming service would really have to come along and take over Fox and Telstra's share of the pie, or ~$260m a year at current rates. I can't see the AFL going without a FTA broadcaster on board and I don't think $420m a year is worth it selling $20 a month subscriptions anyway. There isn't some clever scenario where Optus come in and pay 10% of the total value of the rights and then get all the customers without actually doing the broadcasts.

 

[bUCKET__]

I'm still salty that the AFL couldn't maintain a quality streaming service on their own.

The paid subscription was actually good value in the early days, with a decent res stream, all games, accessible on a range of devices. But they've spent so much money and code on the wrong things: artificially limiting the resolution, preventing casting, tighter geolocking, blocking devices they don't recognise as legit, etc etc.

Now AFL's once-promising live streaming subscription service is a dead-in-the-water Telstra customer perk that'll be scrapped in a year or two when they realise it's not bringing in new customers.

I imagine that the broadcasters came down pretty hard on these things, but * me. The AFL coulda treated it as an investment into growing the game, taken a loss to get more people watching and invested in the game, but they killed their own product and now it's either Kayo or pirating.

Barely related rant, so erm yeah go on Amazon pilfer the AFL too. Long live reality TV.

 

[Scotland]

7 and Fox are the ones that broadcast the games. With cameras and people and "war room" and all that. Why would the AFL want some third party to cheaply on sell their content via a streaming service? They don't want to put the broadcasters offside because they are the ones that make the AFL a gazillion dollar organisation. It's really no different to people who argue all games should be on FTA. OK, but take Fox's $200m+ out of the equation because they're not going to pay to sell something anyone can watch for free. If we are honest people are only pro-streaming anti-Foxtel because the latter is more expensive. If Kayo or Telstra charged $50 a month people would whinge about that. If we had a scenario where Foxtel went down the Optus route and 4/5 games a week were only viewable via an internet connection people would whinge about that.

Going forward we may see a situation similar to the 2018 World Cup where a streaming provider is the major player and then on sells content back to an FTA TV network, rather than the other way around. Channel 7 have 7Plus, so we could end up in a place where 7 offers their games on their own streaming platform and Fox offers their games on theirs etc. But whoever is tipping in the money will dictate what's going on.

 

[kranky al]

Foxtel and channel 7 need a kick up the arse

We are still getting the grand final in potato vision in the country

f#% you channel 7 - i cannot wait - CANNOT WAIT - to pull my antenna off the roof and leave your dead man walking fta for good.

foxtel has improved with kayo but no 4k option.

wake up and smell the roses - I hope amazon scoops the next footy rights deal.

 

[The wily weagle]

Channel 7 have been destroying coverage of the AFL for the last few decades, so anything that annoys people in charge of the status quo is fine by me.

Hell, for years and years Channel 7 really seemed to think that Burkes Backyard rated so highly because it was a really, really good show. Instead we were all held hostage for an hour to wait to watch Friday night footy on a delayed telecast

 

[kranky al]

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.



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?

Be quite happy to leave sd to fta networks - but have fox able yo simulcast all games inc the granny.

 

[eagles_4_life]

I just want the club to do their own commentary much like they do on fb/ you tube for the wafl games. The vic bias and inability to get our guys names right because they only watch 2 games of footy despite it being their job is what destroys the game for me.

 

[kranky al]

I just want the club to do their own commentary much like they do on fb/ you tube for the wafl games. The vic bias and inability to get our guys names right because they only watch 2 games of footy despite it being their job is what destroys the game for me.

Tyson stenglein and mitch mcgovern like this

 

[flamingEMBERS]

I just want the club to do their own commentary much like they do on fb/ you tube for the wafl games. The vic bias and inability to get our guys names right because they only watch 2 games of footy despite it being their job is what destroys the game for me.

Personally I feel if a new company, say Amazon bought the rights they would hopefully come with a more professional out look on the commentary and running of the programs.

 

[TY24]

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.

Optus won’t get the PL rights again, it’s been a disaster from day 1 and Foxtel won’t allow themselves to get caught off guard again.

Optus Sport is a joke, it’s 2020 and I have to watch the biggest sporting league in the world in 720p (usually lower due to constant buffering). Whereas I’m watching AFL games in 4K.

 

[BradBoydsBrownlow]

Hi all, out of curiousity, what video content would you love to see the club put out? More post-game interviews with players/coaches? More get to know the players type videos? More funny/joke stuff/light-hearted stuff with the players? Any other ideas about what videos from the club you'd love to watch?

 

[kranky al]

Optus won’t get the PL rights again, it’s been a disaster from day 1 and Foxtel won’t allow themselves to get caught off guard again.

Optus Sport is a joke, it’s 2020 and I have to watch the biggest sporting league in the world in 720p (usually lower due to constant buffering). Whereas I’m watching AFL games in 4K.

No you arent.

channel 7 dont even have 4k cameras

 

[TY24]

No you arent.

channel 7 dont even have 4k cameras

Foxtel do.

Fox Sports have a dedicated 4K channel and they usually broadcast 2-3 games a round in 4K.