AFL talks held after public outcry over broadcasting

Mike · Joined: 20 Sep 1996 Location: Lilydale, Tas.

From the ABC website:

The AFL will hold urgent talks today in an attempt to quell the growing public outcry over its new broadcasting arrangements.

Footy fans in New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT are up in arms because some of Channel Nine and Ten's regional affiliates are only screening AFL games after rugby league telecasts or movies.

The AFL will hold talks with News Limited today over the failure to deliver adequate coverage of games.

AFL President Wayne Jackson says crucial developing markets are being deprived of the showpiece Friday night game until close to midnight.

He says the league will be asking News Limited to encourage regional networks to fix the problem.

"We're very anxious for that to happen, we share exactly the position that the footy fans are putting to us," he said.

"We've been deluged with emails and faxes and telephone calls and understandably so."

bwphantom · Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2002 2:45 am

This is great news. I have lobbied our local TV station to at least show the AFL footy show earlier than 2 am. I know we live in a fugkby ruled state and I am willing to accept the fact that I will have to wait until 11 pm to see the night games. However, last saturday instead of getting the match of the day live on channel 10 network we got Britney spears. Now I know she has a great set and would look fantastic in anything she wears , but i ask would a Britney spears concert attract more viewers than the footy??

I just feel sorry for all the foxtel customers who are paying extra money to receive the AFL channel. In Qld and NSW we don't even get friday or saturday night footy games live. It is on at 11:30pm and is shown live to air at 11:15 pm. Tell me where is the faarking logic in that. There are pubs in Brissy and regional QLD that would show it live on their big screens. Isn't customer satisfaction what pay TV is all about. The public of NSW AND QLD would benefit and so would the pubs. At least with Optus we got the games live in QLD and NSW.

In addition, the QCSC last year held viewing of the live game at Yeronga footy club. Now because these games are not being shown live fellow Pies supporters can't get together and hoot and holler.

If your not bleeding Black and White, you don't truly support Collingwood!!!!!

MagpieMad · Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2002 9:53 am

You have to wonder how ANY supporter group of ANY team is going to survive with next to no live coverage of games. how do you have a get toghter for a replay? You seperate the passion from the fan and its just a replay. you take live football out of pubs and clubs how many fans do you loose?
can Any of the clubs aford that?.
*while I was typing this post my membership renewal turned up, now the acid is on.. pay TV or a Membership? I can't afford both I can barly afford pay tv as it is if I get it. what would you do? be a member of a club you cant see play live, or see replays of a club I'm not a member of?. it's not like I can go down to the pub and watch it live.
You guys that get to go to the footy week in week out, lap it up m8s your on the gravy train, the AFL don't giva a toss about the rest of us!

Magpiemad http://members.optusnet.com.au/~magpiemad/

PeterWH · Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2002 10:03 am

I have sent 6 emails to AFL about their SLACK broadcasts to Sydney/Brisbane etc and I even suggested to them that they should show the Friday night games Immediately after the RL has finished at 10:30pm instead of 11:30 or 1:15am.I also suggested to them,that it is a bit unfair for the AFL supporter to have to PAY for CH14 when the NRL get Ch11/12 for NICKS,so where do they get off.
I also complained very heavily for TELSTRA to stop being so penny pinching and charging as all $49:95 to listen to OUR game on the PC.
I have had the usual answer via my PC so lets see what occurs over the next week or so.
I reconed that also we should be able to see the AFL games LIVE & FREE on fox even if we dont watch the rest of it.
These penny pinching BASTARDS should consider us poeple that have to WORK for a living and arent on $100,000:00 per annum wages.
I would love to get that each year....Win lotto is the only way for that to happen.
Now that I have got S***t off liver,lets see what the result is.
I recon that I should try and get onto FOX and voice my opinion...probably leave the pollys for dead.

PeterWH
PIES FOR PREMIERS 2002

MagpieMad · Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2002 5:49 pm

Futher to my last post it would apear that the rnd.4 match COLLINGWOOD v dawks will be live on ch10.
from afl.com.au

Saturday 20 April 2002
ADS10 Adelaide 1:30:00 PM
Collingwood v Hawthorn | Match | Live coverage from the Melbourne Cricket Ground

TEN10 Sydney 2:00:00 PM
Collingwood v Hawthorn | Match | Live coverage from the Melbourne Cricket Ground

TVQ10 Brisbane 2:00:00 PM
Collingwood v Hawthorn | Match | Live coverage from the Melbourne Cricket Ground

ATV10 Melbourne 3:30:00 PM
Collingwood v Hawthorn | Match | Delayed coverage from the Melbourne Cricket Ground

I would suggest you contact your local ch10 to confirm these times but it would be a exelent chance to hold a gettogher for the Supporter groups.

Carn tha PIES!!

London Dave · Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2002 10:51 pm

Further developments....
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/news/2002/04/11/FFX6YM03UZC.html

AFL TV rights deal under threat

By Annie Lawson, Melissa Ryan

The AFL's $450 million five-year TV deal is in disarray with the Federal Government yesterday threatening to intervene and the Seven Network poised to attack in court the broadcast contract.

Communications Minister Richard Alston warned that the government would rewrite broadcasting laws to ensure adequate AFL coverage in regional areas deprived of prime-time games.

Talks between the league and News Ltd consortium bosses dragged on yesterday but are expected to conclude today with Channel Nine indicating it would make an announcement to appease disgruntled fans in Queensland, New South Wales and Canberra.

Meanwhile, Senator Alston warned that if the AFL and its broadcasters failed to fix the situation, the government would step in.

"If (they) don't, then we will have to look seriously at what we do with the anti-siphoning list, because I don't think it's being used in the way that it was intended to if people are simply hoarding events to protect their own commercial interest," he said.

Senator Alston warned the broadcasters had "breached the spirit" of anti-siphoning rules that ensure popular sporting events remain on free-to-air TV and do not migrate to pay TV. He attacked the decision to delay match broadcasts by several hours in Canberra and parts of NSW and Queensland on Friday nights and said the AFL should have cut a deal with Ten or the pay-TV providers to fill the programming gaps.

Possible changes include amending broadcasting legislation to allow pay-TV operators to screen sports matches ahead of their free-to-air rivals if they failed to schedule them within a reasonable time.

In other developments, the ABC confirmed yesterday it rejected the Nine Network's offer for limited broadcast rights in parts of rural NSW because of technical and programming difficulties.

The AFL also faces a potential legal challenge by Seven if it attempts to sweeten the broadcast deal to ensure adequate regional coverage.

Seven paid $20 million for the first and last rights agreement in 1997 which dictates that the AFL provides details of competing bids.

If the AFL decides to subsidise regional operators such as Southern Cross, which owns Channel Ten's regional affiliates, this would breach the first and last deal, in place until 2011, by altering the original broadcast rights contract.

AFL chief executive Wayne Jackson yesterday remained confident that a compromise could be reached.

Adding to the AFL's TV rights woes yesterday was the revelation that "the biggest home-and-away game of the year" - Saturday night's grand final rematch between Essendon and Brisbane - would not be shown live or telecast at a reasonable hour in Sydney.

The match, the domain of Channel Ten, will be shown live in Melbourne and on slight delay in Brisbane, but not until 11.25pm on Saturday in Sydney.

The station is instead broadcasting The Crocodile Hunter: Wildest Home Videos at 7.30pm followed by the 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die at 8.30pm and a late news bulletin at 10.55pm.

"It's frustrating from both an Essendon point of view and, I would imagine, an AFL point of view," Bombers chief executive officer Peter Jackson said yesterday.

"From Essendon's point of view, it's a matter of public record that we've gone up there two years ago to affiliate with a local club in North Shore Football Club and part of that is to try to build our own brand up there and it's very hard to do that when you've probably got the biggest home-and-away game of the year not being telecast into that city.

"From the AFL's point of view they're pouring so much money into trying to develop the game in Sydney, I'd imagine it would be frustrating for them as well."

A Channel Ten spokesman said the game was being shown in four out of five capital cities, and the station would monitor the ratings of its Sydney Swans prime-time broadcasts this year before looking to expand its coverage into Sydney beyond Swans games.

"At this point in time we are heavily committed to AFL football in Sydney and Brisbane, with 10 Swan games in prime-time on Saturday nights, which hasn't been done since 1997, and 11 (games) in Brisbane," the spokesman said. "We're doing things that Seven has never ever done by a long way in Sydney."

Jackson said there had been an "enormous backlash" from supporters about the scheduling.

"It has, in one sense, surprised us about the depth of feeling up there and I think that's a good thing that there is such a depth of feeling because it says there's a genuine interest in both AFL football and Essendon."

Jackson said the club had tried to organise a live feed into the North Shore Football Club but Channel Ten had rejected it for technical reasons not explained to the club.

AFL football operations manager Andrew Demetriou said he could not comment on whether the AFL was seeking an earlier timeslot. "Of course we would love Brisbane and Essendon at an earlier time in Sydney. We're getting more coverage on Saturday nights in the northern states than ever before."

Brisbane chairman Graeme Downie said his club had received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from supporters disappointed at no prime-time Friday night games, with regional centres such as the Gold Coast incensed the same level of broadcasting as last year had not been maintained.

Downie also warned of the impact of broadcasting live against the gate, which could cost the Lions by up to $500,000.

"Our Hawthorn game last weekend attracted 25,600 I think it was, and it was live against the gate.

"The same game last year attracted 33,000 and it wasn't live against the gate. We think there's a fair argument to suggest live against the gate is hurting our crowds which impacts pretty heavily on the club's financial position," Downie said.

"Just about all our games in Brisbane are live. We've objected but unfortunately the development issue is bigger than that and we've got no problem; we understand the development issue, but it's impacting on our club and it could impact on us up to half a million dollars a year."

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire remained hopeful that the Friday night impasse would be resolved.

"We're very hopeful that they'll be able to come to an amicable agreement, the AFL and the broadcasters, but at the moment we're all just waiting anxiously for a result to come through," he said.

Richmond president Clinton Casey said his club had been disappointed for its interstate supporters - having played its opening two games on a Thursday night and Friday night - but had confidence it would be resolved

"It's a new consortium, it's a new media deal which will be good for the competition and we've got full faith in the AFL to resolve it. It's very frustrating for our supporters but we're confident," said Casey.

London Dave · Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2002 11:25 pm

I'm sure I've posted something like this before, but anyways....
I will preface this blurb by stating I dont necessarily think the conclusions I reach are fair, but it's just the way I see it.

The new TV rights deal, has at it heart, the aim of driving pay TV into profitability..nothing more, nothing less. Murdoch's BSB was rooted until they paid a then unheard of amount for premiership football here....and now BSB is his cash cow. Can't say I'm upset at that...very little soccer was live here anyway, and the TV companies ran a nice little cartel. TV in the UK was cheap, and poorly run companies like ITV and Granada made easy money....in essence licensed with a govt monopoly. I hate those.

Aussie case is a little more interesting, the only sport that would drive subscriptions is AFL (I believe rugby is a 'free' channel on cable). Cricket wouldnt do it either, though I believe home tests etc are on the govet FTA list. They'd be on FTA anyway, the advertising revenues they attract would make it worth the TV companies while, OS tours at odd hours would not.

As Mad has correctly pointed out, people are in a quandary (used that word cos I cant spell dilemma?). Do I get pay TV, or buy a club membership....Pay TV or watch it at a pub/club (where one pays anyway..) Like has been suggested by many folks, you can write in and voice your disapproval etc, seems to have made the powers at be realise they have a problem (whether they look at it in the manner of Cool Hand lukes jailer "What we have here...is a failure to communicate" or actually try to get more live footy on air is another thing).

I don't blame TV companies, they are a business, not a charity....perhaps the AFL lost sight of the ball when all those $$$ were flashed at it, I dunno, never seen the fine print of the rights deal, but at a minimum, both parties were perhaps naive. It wouldnt be the first time the AFL has been out negotiated....

Ch 10 in Sydney will probably make more $ running Roger Moore than a footy game at that time on Friday (refer Age article)..why shouldnt they?

In some ways, Aussie TV has been pretty cheap too, lots of sport for nothing. If you expect the TV companies to give you any game you want on FTA, you are in cloud cuckoo land. As Peter and Mad have pointed out, it's a financial burden for a lot of people, but apart from voting with your wallet, there's little to stop TV companies and the AFL doing these deals. Unfortunately for Joe public, its just the way things are now.

Personally, I'm waiting for some high bandwidth PPV on the net...I'm up for that. Any ideas about hooking up you TV Mike????
(and I have seen it done, by a workmate who 'broadcast a Man Utd game to himself from london to the states!)

MagpieMad · Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2002 5:02 am

man

quote:

Possible changes include amending broadcasting legislation to allow pay-TV operators to screen sports matches ahead of their free-to-air rivals if they failed to schedule them within a reasonable time.

they still don't get it! every article I have read so far on this has moving live games to pay tv as "The fix" to this poxy drama.

AFL read this " I CAN NOT AFFORD PAY TV!!!!!!! ". I will however remain a Collingwood member, Collingwood forever! the AFL can go get F&*%ed, Wayne Jackson NEVER be in the same room as me!.
I think its time for a change of managment at the AFL they have been stumling from one screw up to another for the last 2 years, Enough I say, piss off! go on AFL PISS OFF!

MagpieMad · Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2002 5:03 am

man

quote:

Possible changes include amending broadcasting legislation to allow pay-TV operators to screen sports matches ahead of their free-to-air rivals if they failed to schedule them within a reasonable time.

they still don't get it! every article I have read so far on this has moving live games to pay tv as "The fix" to this poxy drama.

AFL read this " I CAN NOT AFFORD PAY TV!!!!!!! ". I will however remain a Collingwood member, Collingwood forever! the AFL can go get F&*%ed, Wayne Jackson NEVER be in the same room as me!.
I think its time for a change of managment at the AFL they have been stumling from one screw up to another for the last 2 years, Enough I say, piss off! go on AFL PISS OFF!

Magpiemad http://members.optusnet.com.au/~magpiemad/

Bones · Joined: 04 Sep 1999 Location: western victoria

Makes you appreciate the good job that 7 did over the years eh...
Even tho we did have a whinge, it was difficult for one station to squeeze in 8 games and they did their best.

The AFL are supposed to be run by intelligent people as are the TV stations (cough) THEN why the hell did they not know the viewing audience numbers in NSW and QLD?????? Good god 90% of the people living on the Gold Coast are victorians for starters.
For those that don't know, the GC not only picks up 7 9 and 10 but also gets their affiliates, Prime, Win etc. And quite often 7 brisbane would have one game on and prime would put a different one on. Now 9, 10, Win and 10 nsw cannot even manage to put 2 games together in total...Idiots

I currently have PAYTV (here in Vic) and the $52 a month was dear enough but it has been forced up to $80 a month just so they can make Foxfooty available.
I'm afraid my CFC m/s may have to go next year..

Ok its a dream but why not allow 7 and the ABC to take a game even on the hour delayed would be passable..Yeah pigs might fly..

PeterWH · Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2002 7:36 am

Further to the outcries/post by London Dave,the AFL thru Jackson,has stipulated that they made all of these arrangements LONG before the season started this year.
Also it appears that the TV stations have gone back on their TV telecasts,as the RATINGS arent good enough.Ch 10 this staurday night is showing a 1973 movie called 'Live & Let Die' the article in the papers recons that James Bond will get a better RATING than Bris V Ess. I dont think so.
Anyway it looks like the AFL/Ch9/10 and Fox Consortium are going to throw it all away and start fresh....Does that mean,get rid of Telstra and their $49:95 per month....does it also mean that we will get FOXTEL ch14 for FREE.....All these questions and more will be answered????????

PeterWH
PIES FOR PREMIERS 2002

Greg J · Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2002 5:17 am

... and I am sure that Channel 7 starting to sue the AFL had a lot to do with channel 9 suddenly caving in.

We have to fight for our brethren living in the heathen states.

Rule 1. Barrack for Collingwood
Rule 2. See rule 1.
Rule 3. There is no rule 3.

CARN DE PIES!
Greg J

PeterWH · Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2002 7:23 am

So much for the AFL looking after the supporters.In the paper today it satates in part that 'PAY-TV will be able to see the AFL start earlier due to an agreement between Fox and the AFL.....What the bloody well happens to us people that 1)DONT HAVE PAY TV,2)CANT AFFORD THE SUBS FOR PAY TV 3)WOULD PREFER TO WATCH THE AFL ON FREE TO AIR,4) WILL LISTEN TO THE GAME ON ABC RADIO.
Come on AFL wakey wakey hands off snakeyy

PeterWH
PIES FOR PREMIERS 2002