Interesting to note that Queensland got the entire Opening Round on FTA this year, though one of the matches was a Foxtel game between the Gold Coast Suns and Richmond that preceded the GWS vs Collingwood match on the Saturday evening.
As for the concept, I’m not against it returning next season. Good to see the game grow on the northern side of the Barassi Line, something vindicated with the Brisbane Lions premiership win.
That would be why they got all games on FTA - because there were local teams playing in a Fox timeslot.
It was odd the way they worded it when announcing it. I think they did that to avoid outrage from Vic fans if they knew they don’t have Saturday games on 7 until R16. Now they think it’s only up to R8 where they don’t have Saturday games
I just find it hard to believe Seven would abandon Saturday which is prime time and crucial to their weekly and YTD shares (not to mention Nine don’t have those NRL rights) for Sunday daytime, regardless of the news lead-in, which the past couple of years with minimal Sunday games they hadn’t seemed to care much about.
Only acknowledging Foxtel’s first 8 round exclusivity, as it was key to Seven getting 7Plus streaming rights.
Do we know if Thursday might be only occasional after R8? And in regards to after R15, does that mean either Thursday or Sunday FTA is dropped?
Thursday night will continue until at least Round 15 - then Seven will continue to air 3 games (Friday, Saturday and Sunday).
There is however, some uncertainty about what is going to happen between rounds 9-14 - i.e. if Seven will air the odd Saturday game to make up the number needed on FTA
My guess is Fox wanted Saturday exclusivity, similar to what they get with NRL, so Seven gave that up so Fox would cough up more money for the rights.
Sunday’s would be more critical, with the AFL giving a lead-in to the Melbourne news + onflow into primetime programming.
However, as you pointed out, the Saturday night shares are still important to Seven - I guess that’s why they kept the Saturday games this year rather than Sunday afternoons.
If Seven is going to drop one night, Saturday is the best as it has the lowest total audience watching. So a 30% share on a Saturday is worth less than 30% on other nights. Still not ideal though as it provides a great reason for fans to sign up with Kayo.
When the @brisbanelions & @lionsaflw double over the weekend sends you into ventricular tachycardia 🫀🫠 on the mend now but Monday night review shows pacemaker performing like the Swans on the big stage🦁🏆 #AFL #AFLGF pic.twitter.com/pvJn9AtloU
— Kate McCarthy (@kateemac9) September 30, 2024
Can anyone remember why Seven dropped the Saturday afternoon game when the 2017 broadcasting rights kicked in?
I know that from that point they started to televise an average of 3.5 matches a week and their former Saturday arvo callers Hamish McLachlan and Basil Zempilas were redeployed elsewhere within their AFL commentary department (switching to Sunday afternoons and Saturday nights, respectively).
I’ve also known that a long-running rule existed wherein the Saturday afternoon matches were never live into Victoria (but live in the northern states) - stretching back to when Seven held the FTA rights before losing them to Nine/Ten in 2001.
Most likely Fox wanted more games in exchange for them to pay more for the deal than Seven has to.
Probably just held more value for Fox who were prepared to stump up more cash for it.
I remember at the time it was announced, the AFL were saying that Fox had the option to on-sell a Saturday afternoon match to a FTA broadcaster (probably to shield themselves from the criticism they were receiving from putting it behind a paywall).
There was a lot of talk at the time that Ten were seriously looking at buying it to get back into broadcasting AFL but how much truth was in that talk, I don’t know
So will games covered by Fox, will they be available on 7+once games are done?
I doubt it. It will only be the 7 produced games
Didn’t Seven’s Renee Quirk in her recent conference (covered by TVT) indicate 7Plus would, as she talked a bit about the market specific games and geoblocking
Doubt it.
Compare that with Nine under its current broadcast deal with the NRL, which includes a Saturday night game in each of the last five rounds of the home and away season. Foxtel provides the pictures but Nine provides its own commentary. These Saturday night games are available for catch up at the 9Now website.
Difference between NRL & AFL is that 7 does local games using the Fox broadcast. But I don’t think those will be on 7+, it will only be 7 produced matches.
Unless they work on limiting access of matches to each state based on users location etc then they could potentially have Fox games featuring eg WA teams on 7+ only for WA etc
That could work - they have in the past been able to make viewers only be able to watch news bulletins from the state they are in, and if an episode for a show like Home and Away airs in one state before the other, then only the state that had the initial airing will be able to see it on 7Plus.
Because Ch7 wanted to show it on delay at 3.20pm lead into the news, and AFL wanted all games to be live to TV on FTA. Don’t think it would have rated as well at 2.10pm. Fox had the right to sell that 2.10pm game to a FTA network (7 or what was most likely at the time 10 - but something happened with Murdoch and it never eventuated).
Which is what Seven did for the Saturday arvo game between 2012-16 (90 min delay).
When Ten had the rights, I think the game in this timeslot was either a 60 or 90 min delay, can’t remember which. But what I do know was that Ten had a separate weekend news bulletin for the Melbourne and Adelaide markets on Saturdays, presented by either Mal Walden or George Donikian, that would air in between the AFL matches.
Nine also had a delayed Sunday game when they had the rights.
Fox simulcasts outside Victoria will be available on 7+. Quoting from the rights deal announcement:
- Outside Victoria, the match involving the local team will be broadcast live into the local market on the Seven Network and 7+ digital except for selected matches on holdback.
…- All Free to Air games mirrored and available on 7+ digital in all local markets.
Seven are currently working on ensuring they’re able to do that:
