Somewhat hoping that the recent surge in discussion in the Broadcast rights ruffles some feathers in order for the fans from all teams, not just Western Australia and South Australia, to be taken into further consideration.
I would be cautiously optimistic about a 10/Paramount+ deal personally, particularly due to a particular person behind the bid as stated by @FootyKick:
Surely even half an hour to an hour of delay is enough for Foxtel to get WA/SA eyeballs. I think if all “Foxtel” games that have those teams are on delay, but by less of a delay, that’s a better outcome than the 3 hour ones they deal with at the moment.
You’d think if Paramount did the deal, they’d be wanting to push some WA/SA games to streaming to make more off that audience - you wouldn’t sell many subs if all those games are on Ten.
The only thing I suppose would be how spread WA/SA games are for the Thursday night slot, if that does get sold to someone other than the main rights holder(s).
If the Fremantle and West Coast Eagles were put behind a paywall, I will be bitterly disappointed. As an AFL fan living in WA, I have watched all Fremantle and West Coast Eagles matches on FTA for about 20 years now.
I wonder if this will have an effect for local AFL teams in QLD (Lions and Suns) and NSW (Giants and Swans)
Meanwhile, Nine is reportedly after a package of Thursday night games but the AFL is believed to be opposed to splitting the rights across more than two broadcasters.
It’s nothing to do with State Governments, the only relevant legislative instruments for TV broadcasting (e.g. broadcast licences, anti-siphoning, program classification) come under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government.
So the previous head of sport is involved at 10. Clearly would he in a safe pair of hands and proving they’d hire an experienced team.
For of sevens bluster… they’re the ones emboldening fox for this play on more games behind pay walls. Not doing a joint bid would help this situation. All of these problems would be solved if there was no simulcast deals.
Proof that Foxtel is the biggest spoil sports out there with their way of ruining everything at their joints. If Seven still had Presto running successfully they could’ve leveraged that with their bid for AFL instead of lying with Fox.
A bit of local context behind this, Ollie Wines regularly appears on the Seven Network during the 6pm news during the week, as does Taylor Walker from memory. This report from 7 is biased towards them and paints the AFL and Fox negatively.
As a South Aussie, I prefer the Foxtel broadcast for many reasons. The lack of ad’s, the cutting to 7’s 6pm news coverage mid-way through the match, the mostly superior commentary teams and graphics packages and more importantly, the fact that Fox Footy treat the coverage here seriously. I can’t speak for the West Aussie’s but 7’s handling of the simulcast AFL matches (Twilight ones especially) is shocking.
My goodness. I think SA and WA fans will survive with 5 or 6 matches behind a pay wall.
I really don’t see this being any different with 10/Paramount.
If they’re paying $500 mil plus a season you need a shizen load of subscriptions to not make this an absolute white elephant. That requires exclusive content. You can’t have SA and WA subscriber numbers lagging behind VIC.
