Thursday nights, Friday nights and Sunday gives 69 matches. There are 2 Monday public holidays that could be used both on the day and also the previous night, plus Anzac Day, plus opening round Monday. That’s a fairly good number I would think, plus a few extra Saturday nights
Given regular TNF is likely to have lower in-person attendances if it becomes all season long, I wouldn’t be surprised if the AFL want it to be available to as many people as possible
Brownlow might not be a big deal, but I’d imagine Fox would jump at getting the GF given its the only game they can’t show live
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I’m sure they would but Seven would never agree to this as it would erode their audience and advertising revenue.
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Don’t think it would since Seven currently gets Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday 3:20pm AEST (with public holiday/special games sometimes displacing that) each round and then Thursday night games (in most cases) come on top of that.
If Seven gets Thursday and Friday nights, Sunday 3:20pm AEST and public holiday/special games in a potential new rights agreement, the AFL would still need to give them a bunch of games in another window in order to ensure there isn’t a decrease in the number of FTA games.
Fox had simulcast rights to the Brownlow in the 2012 - 2016 rights deal. Considering Seven gained exclusive rights in the current rights agreement, guessing the value wasn’t worth much to Fox.
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This seems to be a more balanced article to the latest on the rights negotiations. Much better than the tripe News Corp dished up last week.
The bids are now in according to sources and now meetings are taking place this week with each of the media companies about their offers.
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It would be very funny if they got cucked again and didn’t get the digital rights.
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They’ll probably give into foxtel about SA/WA games to get the 7Plus access.
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Good. No more Foxtel hogging it for themselves.
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Yeah I think the concession 7 will make is the 3 currently delayed matches for each SA/WA team will just move behind the paywall. Might be coupled with the promise of more matches in better timeslots to soften the blow.
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I think considering Seven did concede their coverage being carried on streaming platforms (Kayo, Foxtel Go/Now and the Telstra AFL app was shutdown) after the current two year extension deal came into effect, then I think they now have every right to demand their own streaming digital rights.
Also to note this is something Seven has never had on 7Plus (other than the grand final), as previously it was all carried by the latter streaming services (Telstra, Kayo or Foxtel Go/Now).
Wonder if they’ll abandon trying to get digital rights if they can’t reach an agreement and it looks like they might lose the rights completely.
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If they do, will it be 10/Paramount+ or Foxtel exclusive I wonder?
I think Seven won’t want a repeat of 2002-2004 when its general programming suffered in the ratings without the AFL as a lead-in and promotional vehicle.
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I think you’ll also find the rights were much cheaper back then, there was more money to splash around. You are overestimating the available money pool to invest these days in what we used to have. Everything is much tighter budget wise.
As for “Super Saturday”, Fox already have this, three matches live and in a row - arvo, twilight and evening. I think their ploy is just a negotiation tactic.
Fox don’t want any free to air coverage on Saturdays, like the NRL (apart from the final 5 rounds)
Of course they don’t, why would they?
That’s what Fox consider super Saturday.
They have had “Super Saturday” for years, yes? From when they gained the twilight match and also the arvo match from FTA.
Ok - from the article
Foxtel also wants to run a “Super Saturday,” which would allow it to exclusively broadcast Saturday games on pay TV during the regular season.