Football Media Discussion 2

[Generator]

It is on FTA... Just not until 12.30 tonight for some reason that I do not understand - it could be the SBS-Foxtel deal only covers competitive matches being broadcast on both channels live, or SBS made a bad call and decided not to screen it live on any of their channels. At least it’s being broadcast on Foxtel/Kayo/My Football app, plus the ABC is covering it on NewsRadio. Not perfect, but at least it’s an improvement on yesteryears.

[Prydzopolis]

It comes down to money Genny, Foxtel has paid a premium to broadcast football in this country. They aren’t going to lose it’s exclusivity despite the positive this Matilda’s bring not just to Australian football but women’s sport too.

[Carns]

Interesting article re: the influence (sometimes undue) of agents in Australian football.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/mar/14/behind-the-football-the-uncertain-role-and-influence-of-agents

[ManfredSchaefer]

8 minutes ago, Carns said:

Interesting article re: the influence (sometimes undue) of agents in Australian football.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/mar/14/behind-the-football-the-uncertain-role-and-influence-of-agents

One of the best pieces written about sokkah in this country for ages.

Parkin has been doing excellent work on the business side of football for ages & is possibly the only voice in the media who is talking about it. Far too many of our commentariat are focused on issues like TV audiences, standard of games, active fans etc. RP is digging away on the dollars & cents behind the professional game and needs to be accorded far more attention.

[Wobblies]

On this wet Sunday a Great story on ABC on George Best turning up to play for a suburban Perth side in 1984.

[dcrow]

It's nice when one of our chants gets a mention in an American website(call to arms):

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/rowdies/2019/03/31/rowdies-atmosphere-amps-up-cheers-chants-and-most-of-all-community/

[StringerBellend]

Does the abc realise the a league season is still running 

[DCWSW]

3 hours ago, StringerBellend said:

Does the abc realise the a league season is still running 

Consider I still see ABC Radio broadcasters at games, I'd say yes?

[StringerBellend]

1 hour ago, DCWSW said:

Consider I still see ABC Radio broadcasters at games, I'd say yes?

News Breakfast made 0 mentions of the A League while coverling AFL, NRL, AFLW and tennis and  managing to make the first question to an author on African communities in Australia about AFL

 

[hawks2767]

Did the author reply 'football kids who come from football nations would rather play football' ?

 

 

[Paul01]

16 hours ago, StringerBellend said:

News Breakfast made 0 mentions of the A League while coverling AFL, NRL, AFLW and tennis and  managing to make the first question to an author on African communities in Australia about AFL

 

Today we made the 6.25am sports report after the AFLW.

The whole second-rate ratings and crowds were spoken of, and wanderers performances were mentioned. No mention of the FFA and SOPA treatment of supporters.

[beatsurrender]

Fox Sports flags reduced A-League fee if code doesn’t improve

The FFA has been warned to sort out the A-League or risk financial consequences.

• Ray Gatt

  Sports Reporter

Football Federation Australia and the A-League clubs have been warned to sort out the A-League or face a huge drop in the amount of money the game will receive for the next broadcast rights deal.The sobering kick up the backside came to light after details emerged yesterday of the draft New Leagues Working Group (NLWG) recommendations report into the formation of an independent national competition.In a submission to the group, Fox Sports is believed to have expressed concerns about falling ratings and suggested the A-League in current form is unsustainable.

The A-League has suffered in recent seasons through a decline in interest caused by the failure to expand the 10-team competition quickly enough, the fight between FFA and the clubs over the independence of the league and a lack of superstar players. Television ratings are down and attendances at games have plateaued.The clear message from Fox Sports is that unless things change, the broadcast rights fee will fall.The much-anticipated 70-page report has been six weeks in the making, “involved hundreds of hours of work” and was compiled by a group of the game’s stakeholders — the nine presidents of the member federations, five A-League club chairmen, two members of Professional Footballers Australia, two members of the Women’s Football Council, two FFA directors, members of FFA’s management (as required) and an independent non-voting chair, Judith Griggs.

The NLWG set out 15 recommendations, many revolving around legal implications relating to issues such as broadcast obligations, commercial partnership and sponsorship rights and obligations, the Collective Bargaining Agreement, League assets and intellectual property, taxation, further financial due diligence and valuations.Some of those recommendations are still being negotiated and will probably require more tough bargaining before agreement can be reached.Central to that is how much the clubs are prepared to give FFA in terms of financial support from the current broadcast rights deal with Fox Sports, who are in the third year of a $346 million six-year deal.The clubs are pushing to retain 90 per cent of the money but FFA are understood to be demanding an 18.5 per cent share for themselves. 

The member federations, who receive a funding allocation from the FFA, are unhappy that they could be affected under the financial split.In compiling the report, designed to see the A-League move from the control of the FFA to being run as an independent entity by October, the NLWG took into account submissions from a number of stakeholders as well as Fox Sports.The working group reported that Fox’s submission “made for sober reading”.“The NLWG recognised that under whatever New Professional Leagues Model is adopted, the relationship between the Professional Leagues entity and Fox Sports Australia will be paramount, just as will preservation of the respective rights and obligations of the FFA and Fox Sports Australia under contract.

”Sources suggested to The Australian that the report regarding Fox Sports “is spot on”.Despite the Fox concerns, the pending release of the report sees an independent league move one step closer, though it could be cutting it fine to have all necessary legalities in place by the proposed kick-off in October.The report recommends that “all parties and stakeholders, through their nominated lead negotiators and advisers, seek to conclude their negotiations for the new Professional Leagues Model as soon as practicable following March 31, 2019, and, having done so, to document and execute all consequential and/or necessary binding long-form agreements and do all things reasonably necessary to give effect to such agreements by June 30, 2019 (including submission of any proposed FFA constitutional changes to the Members of FFA).”The report’s recommendations eventually need to be put as a “special resolution” to a meeting of FFA members before an independent A-League is approved.Under the terms of the report, only the nine member federations and the three Women’s Football Council members elected by the state bodies will be entitled to vote on the resolution while the A-League clubs, PFA, Women’s Council (other than those elected by the state bodies) and any new members cannot vote.

 

[mack]

Fox Sports whinges for clubs to buy marquees that everyone knows does nothing to create long-term success, and then wonders why there's been no long term success.

[Erebus]

Fox threatening 4 years before the deal expires is the laughable part - right in the middle of the negotiations of the new league structure. Talk about kicking someone when they're down.

Me personally, I  hate that the league and FFA bend over for Fox. Should be the other way round. Even DG comments regarding the 10 interest were along the lines of "we have to respect Foxsports contribution to australian football blah blah". Its a friggen contract. We dont need to suck Fox off constantly because they gave the HAL a chance 15 years ago. Football should be pushing for the best deal available and make the competition(s) a wanted commodity. The fact that Fox try to dictate who teams should sign is ridiculous. This is no the BBL exhibition tournament.

[Hughesy]

Agree 100% with the above. Fox are buying a product, it’s a business transaction. If I go into Woolies and purchase $10,000 worth of groceries, I don’t get to dictate how the shop should be laid out and decide their opening hours. Sporting bodies need to stop bowing to these tv networks. 

I really like this, puts things well into perspective:

 

[GunnerWanderer]

Although the above posts raise good points 

*plays devils advocate*

fox walks away and the code will be on its knees

sometimes in life your paymaster dictates **** and if you can’t find money elsewhere you have to suck it up 

remind me again who is willing pour 60 million annually into arguably a code that had the most inept governing body for well like forever 

[Hughesy]

I don’t know how much they were willing to pay but Optus were definitely interested in the A-League during the last round of bidding

[Erebus]

Agree with that embedded tweet. FFA/HAL should be focusing on the league structure and getting that right. Build the league properly, people show up, quality improves etc and then the bidders will come.

Being beholden to Fox has held us back. Everything the FFA has done lately is to bow down to Fox and keep them happy. At the moment we're limping along and the League is not a worthwhile investment for anyone, so Fox is whinging. They underpaid anyway since the FFA were talking about 100M a year or something and fell WELL short of that.

I still don't believe the ratings numbers either. No one releases MyFootballApp or Kayo streaming or even YouTube stream numbers. I'd be very interested in those stats.

[HillsPanther]

11 hours ago, hughsey said:

Agree 100% with the above. Fox are buying a product, it’s a business transaction. If I go into Woolies and purchase $10,000 worth of groceries, I don’t get to dictate how the shop should be laid out and decide their opening hours. Sporting bodies need to stop bowing to these tv networks. 

I really like this, puts things well into perspective:

 

If I am Woolies' only customer, then I am likely to get more of a say.

[LeeMarvin]

15 minutes ago, Erebus said:

Agree with that embedded tweet. FFA/HAL should be focusing on the league structure and getting that right. Build the league properly, people show up, quality improves etc and then the bidders will come.

Being beholden to Fox has held us back. Everything the FFA has done lately is to bow down to Fox and keep them happy. At the moment we're limping along and the League is not a worthwhile investment for anyone, so Fox is whinging. They underpaid anyway since the FFA were talking about 100M a year or something and fell WELL short of that.

I still don't believe the ratings numbers either. No one releases MyFootballApp or Kayo streaming or even YouTube stream numbers. I'd be very interested in those stats.

And what is messed up also is that the decision on the two new expansion clubs, which I think was a poor one, was based on criteria aimed at appeasing Fox.  Then perversely, if these clubs don't succeed Fox will site it as an example of A-League failure.

[Zelinsky]

Not only did FFA fail to defend the game. They are guilty of actively talking down the game, or stand by as others were doing the talking. As the stewards of the game, they utterly failed. That's their biggest crime.

FFA expected the HAL to bank roll their operation. The club owners disagreed, and it took FIFA to bust the Lowy's ball and bring the stand off to an end. It is a matter of debate if this is going to be good or bad for the game, and future will tell. But this dispute paralyzed the game for years, and a Lowy led FFA was relentless in defending their self serving interests. That's crime number two.

For Foxtel to pipe up now and say "oooohhh, you guys have a problem, and we are not going to pay unless you fix it" is hypocritical. As the broadcaster it was in their interest to protect their investment in the game. They failed. The schedule has been unimaginative. The refereeing has been crap. Arnie's half blind friends in the media have been the public sign of bias towards Smurf FC. None of this helped, and Foxtel was in a position to flex their muscles. They didn't do that.

And now we see the inclusion of two plastic franchises instead of embracing the football heartland with South Melbourne and W'gong. At Foxtel and FFA they are slow learners.

On the bright side: football in the West of Sydney will be pumping again as of next season, and the WSW will drag the league along with them.

[Hughesy]

https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/optus-enters-the-fray-for-aleague-socceroos-broadcast-rights-20160512-gotuig.html

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/may/16/optus-keen-on-buying-a-league-football-rights-in-australia

http://www.adnews.com.au/news/optus-mulls-a-league-rights-bid-as-popularity-grows

[Hughesy]

14 minutes ago, FCB said:

Not only did FFA fail to defend the game. They are guilty of actively talking down the game, or stand by as others were doing the talking. As the stewards of the game, they utterly failed. That's their biggest crime.

FFA expected the HAL to bank roll their operation. The club owners disagreed, and it took FIFA to bust the Lowy's ball and bring the stand off to an end. It is a matter of debate if this is going to be good or bad for the game, and future will tell. But this dispute paralyzed the game for years, and a Lowy led FFA was relentless in defending their self serving interests. That's crime number two.

For Foxtel to pipe up now and say "oooohhh, you guys have a problem, and we are not going to pay unless you fix it" is hypocritical. As the broadcaster it was in their interest to protect their investment in the game. They failed. The schedule has been unimaginative. The refereeing has been crap. Arnie's half blind friends in the media have been the public sign of bias towards Smurf FC. None of this helped, and Foxtel was in a position to flex their muscles. They didn't do that.

And now we see the inclusion of two plastic franchises instead of embracing the football heartland with South Melbourne and W'gong. At Foxtel and FFA they are slow learners.

On the bright side: football in the West of Sydney will be pumping again as of next season, and the WSW will drag the league along with them.

The truly sad thing about all of this is that the FFA’s blind desperation to please everyone and be liked by all is so well known now that external stakeholders can treat them however they want and know that they can get away with it.

From Fox Sports’ end; it’s an absolute master stroke by whoever has co-ordinated this “please explain” to the FFA because it’s completely deflected their own faults and involvement in this all. Kayo has given them a slight resurgence but Foxtel/Fox Sports is definitely not the powerhouse it once was and aren’t exactly in a position to be issuing ultimatums.

From the FFA’s end; they asked for a report to be compiled with recommendations for an independent A-League and included Fox Sports opinion as a good will gesture. What’s astonishing is that Fox Sports have come back to them with a massive backhander, despite having just as much responsibility for the state of things, yet the FFA can only reply with: “yes sir, sorry sir”. It just goes to show how passive and desperate the FFA are when they shouldn’t be.

Not that it ever would but could you imagine the AFL accepting this sort of treatment? Not a chance! The shields would be straight up and they’d be preaching their gospel about how valuable their code is. Just for once it would be nice to see someone have that kind of arrogance at the FFA.

[Erebus]

Please don't have a go at anyone at Foxsports. They are good blokes.

Just like all their mates that failed to get any criticism from them.

[LeeMarvin]

3 hours ago, Erebus said:

Please don't have a go at anyone at Foxsports. They are good blokes.

Just like all their mates that failed to get any criticism from them.

Of course.  What else could be produced by a marriage between Telstra and NewsCorp?

[Paul01]

News on Foxtel on the Premier League

Foxtel to cut all Premier League ties

8h ago 09:55

 

Foxtel confirmed their decision to discontinue the channels from late May as they look to focus on other competitions.

"Foxtel routinely evaluates our channel line up to ensure our programming best reflects our customers viewing preferences," a Foxtel statement read.

"As such, we've made the decision to prioritise the sport codes that Australia loves most, which is why we've focused our line up on a host of great sport including NRL, AFL, A-League, cricket, F1, Rugby World Cup and more.

"Unfortunately, our new direction for sport means we'll be saying farewell to the EPL club channels and dedicated EPL club programming on Fox Sports from May 28 so we can redirect our resources to the sports Australia feels closest to."

Optus Sport currently hold the rights to broadcast the Premier League in Australia and will also show the Women's World Cup later this year. 

[mack]

On 03/04/2019 at 10:16 AM, Erebus said:

At the moment we're limping along and the League is not a worthwhile investment for anyone, so Fox is whinging. They underpaid anyway since the FFA were talking about 100M a year or something and fell WELL short of that.

I remember after that was signed that the 6 year long contract was a ridiculously long one, all so Gallop could crow about doubling the deal like he promised (shifting the goalposts from a per year doubling to an overall doubling despite the longer year count).

Little did we know just how badly the FFA would run the league into the dirt with the help of Fox in the following years.

Now that 6 year contract looks like genius because it's insulated the league from having to struggle through to a new deal with Fox at the same time as they deal with the new league working group issue and their mediocre expansion that includes a club that will be getting 4000 people to a 35,000 capacity AFL oval an hour away from where the stadium they said they'd start immediately after getting the license but haven't done anything about yet because their original owners pulled out and had to be replaced.

[mintoff]

On 02/04/2019 at 4:00 PM, mack said:

Fox Sports whinges for clubs to buy marquees that everyone knows does nothing to create long-term success, and then wonders why there's been no long term success.

Fox sport commentators are doing more harm to the A - League then anyone else, the worst game callers and wrong decisions, and biased to certain clubs.

[Zelinsky]

15 hours ago, mintoff said:

Fox sport commentators are doing more harm to the A - League then anyone else, the worst game callers and wrong decisions, and biased to certain clubs.

You haven't seen the worst of it yet. Once Arnie gets sacked by FFA he'll end up at Foxtel, and we'll get to listen to his garbage not in the occasional press conference, but throughout the season.

[StringerBellend]

All football should have Craig and Lucy