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AFL heads to US for talks on broadcast rights

CEO Gillon McLachlan leads consortium to discuss next rights with streaming giants.

AFL execs have headed to the US to conduct talks with streaming giants around its next broadcasting rights.

Media reports confirmed CEO Gillon McLachlan, AFL broadcasting boss Travis Auld, strategist Walter Lee and general counsel and head of football Andrew Dillon had jetted to the US.

Both Amazon owned Prime Video and Paramount have expressed interest in further sports rights.

It comes at a time when the AFL is looking to fund an increase in player salaries, including for the AFLW.

Talks had already started with Foxtel and Seven on a new deal for rights currently worth $475 million per year from both networks combined for each of the 2023 and 2024 seasons.

The league is reportedly happy with its current FOX Footy-Seven arrangement, howeveer Seven ratings are down by more than 18 per cent, compared with five years ago (after the first five rounds), and FOX Footy numbers down 13 per cent. FOX’s streaming service, Kayo, has gone from zero viewers in 2017 to an average 139,000 in the first month of the season.

The current anti-siphoning list does not prevent a streamer from bidding for rights, and could emerge with a match a week or more.

Source: The Australian, The Age

6 Responses

    1. That would be a disaster if this happens. When there is an AFL match on, 7+ will block the stream and replace with Border Security repeats. Mr Murdoch wants to protect his interests of Foxtel and Kayo.

  1. I hope some platform doesn’t take for example just one game, how fractured will that become if you have to chase games across various streaming platforms, one has Friday night streaming, a different streamer has Saturday night games, Sunday somebody else, would be a nightmare as a viewer to know where the streaming games were.

  2. Surely Paramount have to be thinking about a big bid with Channel 10 and Paramount + to take all of the AFL. Or, at the very least, surely the AFL would be planting that seed in these meetings?

    Channel 10’s last period of real success was anchored by AFL, so they’d be silly not to in this climate.

      1. They need to throw the kitchen sink at these rights..look at where they are with the A League as their only main sport. With no other data to go by, the Saturday night ratings are embarrassing to say the least.

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