Football Media Discussion 3 (Goodbye Foxtel, Hello Paramount+)

[mack]

Previous thread here.

New A-League TV Deal:

• Channel 10 and their streaming services Paramount+ will own the A-League & W-League rights until 2026/27 with potential extensions for 3 years.
• Worth $200 million all up (cash & advertising components).
• Paramount Plus is the rebranded version of Channel 10's existing Apps/Streaming services.
• It costs $8.99 per month, launching on 11 August.
• A-League match of the round on the Channel 10 main channel at 7:30pm with a discussion show prior.
• 10 Bold will host a W-League match on Sunday afternoon.
• The owners of 10/Paramount, Viacom have bought a minority share in the "Australian Professional Leagues" company that now runs the A-League & W-League.
• Production of the broadcast will be run by the APL.
• Channel 9's bid was significantly lower financially.
• The FFA Cup, National Teams & Asian Champions League is not included in this deal and may end up with different companies.

This thread is for discussion of the Football Media. Inclusive of media personalities, bias in the media, and news about the people who report on football.

Please keep in mind that news articles regarding our players, clubs, or any other non-media related news can be given their own threads in an appropriate subforum, or posted in relevant specific thread.

[DCWSW]

Rumours now that Stan will acquire the rights to the Champions League.

 

Ten/Paramount - A-League

Stan - UEFA Champions/Europa League (maybe Euro qualifiers?)

Optus - Premier League

beIN - Euro Leagues and EFL 

ESPN - FA Cup

 

Football getting even more fragmented.

[mack]

Amazon Sport + SBS, Channel 9 + Stan and 10/Paramount are going for the national team broadcast rights. Hopefully Paramount's offer is good enough to keep everyone on the same channel & streaming service.

I wouldn't bother buying another streaming service just for the WC Qualifiers that aren't in Australia (the anti-siphoning list requires locally hosted WC Qualifiers to be on FTA).

[Smoggy]

First thing 10/Paramount should do is hire Simon Hill.

[Wanderboy]

Just now, Smoggy said:

First thing 10/Paramount should do is hire Simon Hill.

Was just about to post this.

[Smoggy]

2 minutes ago, Wanderboy said:

Was just about to post this.

The second thing they should do is call Speed, Slater plus Harper and tell them their services will not be required.

Edited May 26, 2021 by Smoggy

[Unlimited]

As club members, hopefully we can get an integrated subscription to Paramount or at least the A-League so that we can watch WSW away games if we can’t attend them 

[sonar]

9 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

First thing 10/Paramount should do is hire Simon Hill.

Absolutely. Best football commentator (in this country at least) by a big margin.

[Smoggy]

1 minute ago, sonar said:

Absolutely. Best football commentator (in this country at least) by a big margin.

Simon is a proper commentator, knows the game inside out.

[wendybr]

16 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

First thing 10/Paramount should do is hire Simon Hill.

Bozza too please??

[Smoggy]

1 minute ago, wendybr said:

Bozza too please??

Yeah..Bozza too, that hair implant maintenance needs playing for..so needs the gig.

[wendybr]

7 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

Yeah..Bozza too, that hair implant maintenance needs playing for..so needs the gig.

Oh good! 

[wendybr]

The move to 10 is getting The Project treatment.

Good to see.

[GunnerWanderer]

I guess one game a week is on FTA is somewhat a start 

The money is significantly less than the near 60 mil Foxtel gave under old deal but beggars can’t be chooses I guess 

at least it didn’t end up with 9 who have a proud history with channel 7 of ******* over football 

[Unlimited]

3 hours ago, mack said:

Previous thread here.

New A-League TV Deal:

• A-League match of the round on the Channel 10 main channel at 7:30pm with a discussion show prior.

Oh I missed this. You reckon it'll be called Saturday FC, successor to Thursday FC?

What's Matt Okine doing these days...

[Jowel]

I hear the season is starting in October ?

[Jowel]

Wsw member chick told me

[mack]

16 minutes ago, Jowel said:

Wsw member chick told me

That's been the target month for a while now, it's been mentioned on twitter by a few of the club CEO's.

[mack]

Ten clinches new $200m broadcast deal for A-League soccer (from AFR but paywalled)

Network 10 will use live soccer to launch its new Paramount+ streaming service in Australia, with the US-owned television business clinching a five-year $200m deal for A-League and W-League rights.

While the $40m per season deal is considered above some expectations given the A-League’s slumping ratings on current telecaster Fox Sports and the state of the television industry, the annual cash component of about $32m is below the projections the league is using to pitch for more than $100m in potential investment from private equity sources.

The Australian has seen an information memorandum the A-League has been circulating to prospective investors, comprising revenue projections and plans for a lengthened season beginning in October and ending with an expanded finals series in June.

Included in the projections is about $51m in media revenue for 2022, rising to almost $59m within five years, including about $4.3m in international broadcast income.

The new Ten deal falls short of the projection, though A-League officials said they were happy to clinch the new contract that brings an end to a 16-year association between Fox Sports and the league.

But Ten’s owners ViacomCBS are set to take a minority stake in the A-League in addition to the broadcast deal, in a move club owners hope will help clinch a private equity deal for a larger slice of the competition’s commercial assets.

The A-League in turn are still intending to use some of the private equity proceeds, which they are seeking by about June 30, to establish their own direct to consumer streaming service that would also have a full range of A-League and W-League broadcast content.

Terms of the $200m cash and contra deal broadcast deal with Ten were first revealed by The Australian on Thursday morning, and later confirmed by the Australian Professional Leagues organisation comprising A-League and W-League club owners.

Ten will broadcast a Saturday night game live on its main free-to-air channel from the next A-League season, while the secondary 10 Bold channel will show a W-League game live each Sunday.

All matches across both leagues will be available on the new Paramount+ streaming service, which will cost $8.99 per month and launch in August. Ten is owned by US business ViacomCBS.

“This agreement with one of the world’s biggest content providers, is exactly the kind of significant and vital milestone we have always believed was possible – and that we intend to continue achieving,” APL chairman and Western Sydney Wanderers chairman Paul Lederer said.

Ten is also understood to be keen on Socceroos and Matildas matches currently being sold separately in the market by governing body Football Australia. SBS and global giant Amazon may in turn bid for World Cup soccer rights, including the 2023 Women’s event in Australia.

The A-League meanwhile has been meeting with potential investors as it, like rugby union and other sports, seeks a private equity investment to bring in much needed cash to put it on a firmer financial footing.

The information memorandum says the A-League would generate about $72m revenue in 2022, including almost $10m in sponsorship, another $10m in gate receipts from hosting the grand final and other important games and almost $2m in merchandise sales. Income would rise to $98m within five years.

International friendlies with big clubs touring Australia would also be an important strategy, bringing in about $3.3 revenue from next year. A “street football” pre-season tournament is also planned.

The A-League is seeking at least $100m from investors and may be offering a 25% stake in return, with contenders such as Silver Lake – currently bidding for a slice of New Zealand Rugby – understood to have at least expressed preliminary interest.

Foxtel chief executive Patrick Delany said he “would have preferred to retain the A-League and W-League [but] we chose early on in the process to maintain our cost and valuation discipline in relation to these rights.

“As the [APL] look toward a new future, we thank them for their partnership. We have been incredibly pleased to bring the A-League and the W-League to the many fans of football in Australia. We wish the APL well and for football fans, we remain the go-to destination for those who love the best in European football league action including Italy’s Serie A, Germany’s Bundesliga and Spain’s La Liga.”

-------

Why Ten is taking a $200m punt on the struggling A-League (Rugari SMH)

Five years ago, 61,880 people packed into what was then known as ANZ Stadium for an A-League Sydney derby. Almost five weeks ago, there was a crowd of just 990 at Melbourne’s AAMI Park for a Western United game.

Sure, it’s not an apples-for-apples comparison, and there has been a pandemic. But it’s as good an example as there is of where the A-League used to be, and how far it’s fallen. (So, too, the fact that many casual observers probably have no clue what a Western United even is.)

On face value, then, the A-League and W-League’s new five-year broadcasting deal with Network Ten and Paramount+ may not make a whole load of sense. But only if you view it through the lens of a traditional TV contract.

This is not that. Ten’s owners, ViacomCBS, are not just handing over a whopping $200 million to the Australian Professional Leagues - the newly-independent, club-run body that runs both competitions. They’ve actually bought into the APL, purchasing a small stake in the whole operation.

It means the words of ViacomCBS’s chief content officer and vice president in Australia and New Zealand, Beverley McGarvey, don’t feel as hollow as they might have.

“Fundamentally, we believe in it,” McGarvey told the Herald when asked why her network is investing so much into a struggling league.

Foxtel tried to make it work for 16 years – and there was a fleeting moment where it felt like they did in the middle of last decade, before the code tore itself apart, as only it can, with a trademark civil war.

“Of course there have been challenges in the past but to a degree, that makes it an amazing opportunity,” McGarvey continued. “We believe the time is right for the partnership. We actually like to get in at a stage in something where together we can make it bigger and better.

“That’s our ambition. This is a perfect sport to do that with.”

Ten’s key performance indicators will include the usual fare – ratings figures for the weekly Saturday night men’s and Sunday afternoon women’s matches on free-to-air, and the number of subscribers that will be driven to the soon-to-be-launched Paramount+ service for the rest of the games. But it’s now really in their own financial interest that the sleeping giant of Australian sport wakes up and doesn’t hit snooze again.

It should all be music to the ears of long-suffering A-League and W-League fans. Having for so long complained about the lack of advertising for the game, they have been promised a marketing blitz on the eve of the new season, which is likely to begin in late October pending final agreements from Football Australia and Ten. Suddenly, endless soccer crossovers with ratings hits like MasterChef and The Bachelor, and regular spots for players on The Project, are in play.

“We’re not going to make this kind of investment and not tell everybody,” McGarvey said.

But there is immense risk on both sides of this partnership. The potential downside for Ten is obvious: $200 million is a lot of money to spend on something that isn’t a sure thing.

They are, however, convinced that their target demographics are perfectly aligned with football’s: young, diverse, digital natives. They believe that with the right investment and presentation, and a redux of the old Big Bash League formula, they can return the A-League to its former glory and take the W-League to the next level as the 2023 Women’s World Cup draws nearer.

“People still refer to what Network Ten did with the Big Bash as developing that game. We very much hope to leave the same influence on the A-League and hopefully be long-term partners with it also,” Jarrod Villani, ViacomCBS’s other local executive vice president, said. “We think it’s the right time for this game to really take a step forward and announce its prominence in the Australian landscape. We’d like to be part of that story.“

The big challenge for the APL is they must now convince fans to migrate to an entirely new, relatively unknown streaming service. That won’t be easy. Research from Gemba last year showed that 72 per cent of Australians had maxed out what they were willing to spend on sport and entertainment platforms, and one in five people were actively looking to reduce their montly outlay.

Is domestic football enough to make them pay another $8.99 per month, even if they get a whole bunch of other US film and television content to go with it? Perhaps not enough on its own, although McGarvey admitted Paramount+ was interested in “lots more elements” of football, and declined to elaborate any further. That could mean the Socceroos and Matildas rights, as well as the 2023 Women’s World Cup, or even the suite of European leagues which will hit the market in the coming months.

The A-League itself has a lot of work to do, which APL managing director and Sydney FC chief Danny Townsend – who brokered the deal with Ten – freely admits. That work can now commence, and it’s pretty exciting: abandoned concepts like big-name marquees are back on the table, as well as targeting lesser-known stars from countries like India and Vietnam to stimulate migrant populations. Further expansion of the A-League and W-League will happen within the term of this new broadcasting deal, although timelines and processes have not yet been defined. Re-engagement with active and non-active fans alike is also a priority. There’s a long list of those.

“We all believe in the sport, that’s why we work in it,” Townsend said. “Part of that challenge has always been to convince others to believe, and when you’ve got a partner that comes to you and says, ‘I want to put your sport as the number one sport on our network’, that gives you a huge amount of confidence.

“You can’t fix this with one lever. You’ve got to move all the levers in the same direction. When you get that right, magic happens. We’re at that stage – we’ve got to reimagine the game.”

It’s all in front of Townsend, the clubs, the APL, and Ten, who are not afraid of talking a big game. It’s now time to deliver.

[Jowel]

2 hours ago, mack said:

That's been the target month for a while now, it's been mentioned on twitter by a few of the club CEO's.

I thought the season start wasn’t going to be until early 2022?

[mack]

22 minutes ago, Jowel said:

I thought the season start wasn’t going to be until early 2022?

The FFA wanted to move the league to that early to run through winter but the clubs didn't want it.

[StringerBellend]

22 minutes ago, Jowel said:

I thought the season start wasn’t going to be until early 2022?

Our players haven’t started this season yet

[Erebus]

9 hours ago, mack said:

The FFA wanted to move the league to that early to run through winter but the clubs didn't want it.

Broadcasters didn't want it either.

 

16 hours ago, DCWSW said:

Rumours now that Stan will acquire the rights to the Champions League.

 

Ten/Paramount - A-League

Stan - UEFA Champions/Europa League (maybe Euro qualifiers?)

Optus - Premier League

beIN - Euro Leagues and EFL 

ESPN - FA Cup

 

Football getting even more fragmented.

It's called competition. Fox had the monopoly for ages but did a poor job. Took too long to bring in an OTT solution.

People forget very recently we didn't get entire competitions available live and on demand. Were lucky to get one game a week which was a round behind.

[Sithslayer1991]

Its not so different from before it was just on foxtel and instead of payin an extra $20 for ESPN and BEIN you pay what you watch.

I honestly think its good that little bit that Paramount has 2.5% stake in the A-league and I think that is a big positive because they have gone all in on A-league.

However I am hoping anti-siphoning force the Socceroos and Matildas on free to air and not be on another subscription. I always hated to watch the Socceroos or Matildas you needed Foxtel. The national teams should be free to air.

[marron]

45 minutes ago, Erebus said:

Broadcasters didn't want it either.

 

It's called competition. Fox had the monopoly for ages but did a poor job. Took too long to bring in an OTT solution.

People forget very recently we didn't get entire competitions available live and on demand. Were lucky to get one game a week which was a round behind.

Yeah. In other places in the past (or even still) the league itself will be split across different providers. I don't have a problem with different orgs having different rights. The one potential issue is just that at least before if eurosnob gets one provider for the champions league or the EPL or whatever they might at least consume a little A-League, but, ****, it's been how many years, eurosnobs going to eurosnob, I don't think that has ever made as big a difference as we'd hope anyway; plus, having a game on FTA given proper treatment (fingers crossed) might negate that all anyway.

 

 

[DCWSW]

Paramount Plus in the US has acquired the rights to the AFC Champions League.

Will be interesting to see if they do similar here in the Aus market.

[WSWJACK]

At the moment if i want to go down the pub to enjoy and watch a game, it's usually on (fox).

next season will pubs have to sign up to Paramount+ to show a game? or have i lost out on that option (if pub doesn't subscribe)

[beatsurrender]

Oh goody we will be getting some marquee money again.

No doubt given our recent record we will be able to turn a foreign marquee from a game changing individual to one on the outer training with the kids!

[Carns]

3 hours ago, WSWJACK said:

At the moment if i want to go down the pub to enjoy and watch a game, it's usually on (fox).

next season will pubs have to sign up to Paramount+ to show a game? or have i lost out on that option (if pub doesn't subscribe)

You would assume so, unless Ten/Paramount+ do a broadcasting deal with pubs (pretty sure they often do separate deals with pubs, 9/Stan had issues with their rugby coverage in pubs due to this).

[beatsurrender]

50 minutes ago, Carns said:

You would assume so, unless Ten/Paramount+ do a broadcasting deal with pubs (pretty sure they often do separate deals with pubs, 9/Stan had issues with their rugby coverage in pubs due to this).

Saturday night should be no problem though as the game will be on the main FTA channel