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Seven, Foxtel win AFL rights

The AFL has confirmed the details of its 2012-2016 broadcast rights, awarded jointly to Seven, Foxtel and Telstra at $1.25b.

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The AFL has confirmed the details of 2012-2016 broadcast rights, awarded jointly to the Seven Network and Foxtel / Austar.

Seven will have the rights to a minimum of four matches per round plus Finals, the Brownlow Medal and the Grand Final. In NSW, Qld and ACT games will played live on 7mate. In Victoria and Tasmania Friday night games will now be live, with a 30 minute delay in SA and a “reduced delay” in WA. Better Homes and Gardens will be moving where necessary.

Saturday night and Sunday arvo will be live. Saturday arvo games will be live in NSW, ACT, Qld but delayed in Vic, SA, WA and Tas.

Seven would not confirm if games would be in HD.

Outside Victoria all state-based teams will be seen in their respective states on Free to Air.

All finals will be live in all states.

Foxtel will have rights to all 9 weekly games played live and uninterrupted in every state in HD, plus the Brownlow Medal except the Grand Final. Foxtel will also revive its dedicated AFL channel. It also gets live pre-season games.

Telstra gets live mobile and IPTV rights via T-Box for every weekly game.

The value of the rights is the $1.253 billion fee the league was aggressively pursuing.

The AFL will move the start times of some games, with Friday nights now 7:50pm AEST.

The deal was announced by AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick and CEO Andrew Demetriou. It included Seven Network CEO David Leckie and Foxtel’s CEO Kim Williams.

David Leckie said, “Today’s agreement between Seven and the Australian Football League will play a key role in driving the future development of Seven in a competitive market.

“It’s a win for Seven and also importantly for the millions of football fans who flock to our coverage on free-to-air television. We look forward to bringing this great game to all Australians on the Seven Network.”

Seven has not ruled out sub-licensing games, potentially with TEN.

Kim Williams added, “This is a great day for Australian sports fans who love the AFL because for the first time they will be able to see every game of the AFL live, get real choice over which network to watch their team on, and they’ll have the option of watching AFL games on their mobiles, personal computer, Microsoft Xbox 360 or Telstra T-box.”

The announcement follows an exit by the TEN Network from joint rights with Seven and a bid by the Nine Network.

The revamped Anti-Siphoning List allows for more use of multichannels by broadcasters, but does not require live broadcasts except for the Grand Final.

This post updates.

86 Responses

  1. I am actually a fan of all sport and don’t begrudge the AFL nor is this aimed at them – I am questioning the merits of the deal based on all the numbers and while all broadcasters have lost money on the AFL for years, those losses will now increase substantially.

    In regards to the ratings, you are picking one of the biggest games of the year – I am talking about the averages across the season – feel free to show me proof that AFL audiences have not declined between 10-20% over the last few years.

    Sport is emotional and that’s why we all love it – analysis of a business transaction has nothing to do with the emotion for the sport.

  3. @graeme. have a look at monday and tursdays figures for those 2 games. have a look at all the friday night games. they are the same as last year if not better. you just sound like a bitter league fan, who thought the afl would never get close to the billion dollar mark. are you related to roy masters

  4. yep, i think ess vs coll on monday rated an average of 1.38 million viewers. or was it 1.28 million? i don’t see how that’s a decline of viewership at all. and that’s in addition to the 89,000 at the ground.

  5. @Mr Chandler – please provide official ratings data demonstrating otherwise. Everything I have been shown confirms declining ratings. And Sevens ratings will drop even more under this new contract

  8. the best thing about this deal is. no more lane, quartermaine, walls, sam lane and anday maher. worst bunch of commentators ever. the fox footy channel is the best as well

  10. I just saw that David Leckie has said they will “absolutely break even” on the deal – any person that believes that, drinks more wine than Leckie!! What a farcical statement – with AFL audiences declining and about to rapidly decline with this deal, Seven will lose at Least $10 million per year if they do all four games and even that is conservative. Seven are on fire and the AFL will help in certain ways but don’t expect the public to be so dumb they will believe you are going to “break even”….

  12. I hope with the new footy rights deal that channel Rex take LLoyd, Darcy, Walls and Quatermain from Ten (maybe Tim Lane as long his daughter can’t cross with him). As long as anyone from Before the Game and Hudson don’t get a gig I will happy! I doubt Kelli Underwood will get a gig she already has netball on One!

    I hope Foxtel have a cull as well with their commentators, apart from Healy and BT! I think its heaps better than the current deal as it annoyed me that Foxtel would have the same game as free to air when WA (likewise SA) teams playing and the match of the round isn’t televised live. At least Foxtel will start using the multiview function like they do with their EPL coverage.

  13. I guess Jeff Browne is going to be leaving 9 very soon then…. i can’t believe they put this guy in as a lock to bring the AFL back to 9 only to barely even look interested…

  14. So if i want AFL footy live i need to move to Sydney….hmmm. Stuff Seven. If they won’t show Friday footy live in Adelaide, i’ll watch it live elsewhere. But i won’t be getting Foxtel. Stupid by Seven, delaying games will only push people to Foxtel or online, how is that possibly a good outcome for Seven?? They paid $1 billion for nothing.

    Hurry up Nine and schedule NRL games live in Adelaide. Had enough of the greedy AFL, and really wanna watch NRL on tv.

  15. @graeme, foxtel will be using seven’s video feed, but they will be using their own commentators. not that it makes a difference, even now, the commentators don’t stop when 7 or 10 go to an ad break, just watch a 7 or 10 produced game on foxtel, and you’ll see that the discussion continues during the ad break period.

    @Jezza, the problem is that the types of people who would use iptv are the types of ppl who know that these sorts of things are available for free, so i wouldn’t imagine telstra is in for a huge pay day from iptv rights. and i don’t think foxtel is at all worried. iptv (for the most part) looks truly horrid compared to foxtel hd. this may begin to change once the nbn is rolled out, but that won’t be during this broadcast deal.

  16. Given the rapid improvements in the internet over the past few years, Telstra will be the big winners from this. Convergence technology will soon lead to everything being delivered via the net, with pay per view (ppv) being dominant for premium content. Ch7s 3-4 games a week will be irrelevant by 2015, Foxtel may get lucky and stay relevant, but if you just want to watch your own team over the net on an HD tv, ppv will be the way forward. The net advances dynamically, the old media doesn’t.

  17. wow it sounds like Foxtel got it cheap and Seven overpaid! I know I’ll be watching Foxtel and not Seven! A lot of people will have access to T-Box, X box and Foxtel so who will be watching ch 7?! How can ch 7 make any money? Who in WA will watch the Friday night game on a 1hr delay when they can watch it live on Foxtel without any interuption?

    I’m glad I have the option of watching it with IPTV cos I want to get rid of Foxtel

  18. Foxtel will have to take an ad break if its a Seven produced game – unless they are going to have hosts and a studio somewhere else Or having their own commentators as well.

  20. @ Kuttsywood, the AFL moving to a digital channel in QLD and NSW (non-AFL markets) isn’t particularly the worst thing to happen in this set of rights. Considering digital uptake is now above 80%, with it reaching 100% by the end of year two of the contract it will be just as easy for viewers to watch 7mate as it does to watch the main seven channel.

    By 2014 what will be stopping channels like Eleven, GO!, 7two or 7mate winning nights outright over the main channel?

  21. Oh I think TEN will be making a big play for the NRL.

    Murdoch owns part of TEN, the NRL and FOX Sports.

    Murdoch can hand half a billion of TEN’s money over to News Corp for the rights to the Murdoch owned NRL.

    TEN are screwed. News Corp will walk away laughing.

    Or am I being too cynical?

  22. as i understand….

    Foxtel – 550 million – 9 games live, no adverts (even when using 7’s coverage)
    Seven – 475 million – 4 games, sat arvo delayed
    Telstra – 150 million

    foxtel winners, Channel 7 losers?

  24. I wonder if this means goodbye to ‘Before The Game’? It did only start because 10 had the AFL rights, I thought.

    I know ‘The Footy Show’ (AFL) exists with 9 not having the rights, but if ‘Before The Game’ still continues they basically be telling you to switch over the channel once it is done.

  25. Can someone please fill me in on how this, in anyway, is a good deal for Seven????

    I know they haven’t paid more than they did last time but they have given up a heap of the rights?????

    Telstra and Foxtel, while paying way too much still, have done much better than Seven who unless I am missing something, have just done one of the worst sporting deals I have ever seen??

    As mentioned by others, they will get absolutely flogged on 7mate in Sydney and Brisbane which they of course know but given TEN are the only ones that tried to do anything with AFL in the northern states and saw no ratings increases in ten years, this will be a blood bath!

    Well done to the AFL for doing a good deal for them, the clubs and the fans but to those at Seven, Leckie must have been hammered when he signed off on this deal.

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