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Report: AFL hears network pitches for next rights

No dollar amounts yet, but Gillon McLachlan & AFL execs have now heard network pitches.

Network execs from Seven, Nine, 10 and Foxtel have all held high-level meetings with AFL chief executive officer Gillon McLachlan, AFL chairman Richard Goyder and two other AFL Commission members over future broadcasting rights, although The Age reports the meetings were not focused on specific dollar amounts.

Each of the media outfits’ chief executives were represented in the meetings with McLachlan, including Seven’s James Warburton and his Seven Head of Sport Lewis Martin, 10’s co-chiefs Jarrod Villani and Beverley McGarvey, Nine’s boss Mike Sneesby, and Foxtel’s CEO Patrick Delany and his key FOX Sports executive Steve Crawley.

Each of the networks broke down how they could broadcast, with games divided between free to air, and streaming services such as 9Now and 7plus.

Paramount did not wish to win the rights and then sell off particular slots, such as Friday or Saturday nights, as had been speculated.

Senior club and AFL insiders told The Age that they favour Foxtel and Seven, although there is a view that Paramount-10 could make the largest financial offer.

The AFL also met with global tech giant Amazon in Los Angeles in April.

You can read more here.

10 Responses

  1. The only important issue, IMO, is that there are four live games on free-to-air every weekend, and that cities get the games involving their teams. All else is icing on the cake for those who want more. If 7 settle for anything less, they don’t deserve to keep it.

    1. When was the last time Home & Away forced a schedule change? I assume you mean a channel change from 7 to 7mate or vice versa. I doubt 9 or 10 will be any better as 10 did the same thing to the BBL.

  2. It is an obvious point, but AFL rights have to be the most prized of anything on Australian tv – purely from volume and consistency. Nine will want to replace NRL with AFL if at all possible. SoO and grand final rate well but week on week, the front bar rates more than most NRL regular games. For seven, losing the AFL will be like losing a limb. Losing the tennis was bad enough for them. For ten, CBS will have to finally get the Cheque book out. From memory, seven have the right of last refusal….if my memory is accurate, can’t see seven losing the rights. Depending on the price, this may impact Stokes willingness to bit for the Olympics.

  3. Foxtel has done a great job,and i hope that continues.They deserve to be involved going forward.The shows they provide during the week are a must watch.If Paramount or Stan win your still going to have to pay for the service it’s not going to be free,and your not going to get the Footy shows screening during the week either.Foxtel is #1

  4. If 7/Fox continues with AFL – Good for them, but not good for fans. Sadly, fans wont be able to stream AFL on 7+. The main key is Rupert who wants to protect his interests and assets. Not just that, but the intro vo guy. His voice is too rough and stale. They need a new VO intro guy to revitalise. While Dennis signed off in 2016, he was well liked by many fans. Sadly, we had to put up with the same commentary team for many years now. We want to watch the AFL, not put up with self-indulgent jokes on air. JB was so bad that his voice was unbearable. He has a croaky voice. And this goes the same for BT. The commentary was enough to turn viewers off. Hamish is not a likeable host becuase of his arrogance. Thirdly, they used Megawall for their coverage -we want to focus on the ground, not other places and weather. The camera angles were so bad and focused too much on crowds. About a decade ago, fans are sick of 7’s coverage and want a change in telecaster.

    1. Totally agree with you, I feel that Keith Rupert Murdoch has too much power, but I would like to see a change of broadcaster, and Foxtel lose the AFL. But with change of broadcasters, if you’re taking about Nine/Ten, then it was two decades ago, and it wasn’t that bad. I felt that they had several initiatives that was sadly gone when Seven had full free-to-air rights (the five minute warning in the last quarter on Ten survived until 2011 because Ten had Saturday matches until 2011, although the count-up is used for the broadcast of VFL matches on Seven, but ABC did the same thing when they had the rights).

      With 10/Paramount or Nine/Stan, it could be used as a selling point for their streaming services as there would be more diversity in sporting content and I would appreciate that diversity and it could attract subscribers for either service, depending on who wins the broadcast rights.

      1. Well 9Now has simulcast rights for 9 NRL games whilst, 7plus doesn’t have simulcast rights 7 afl or cricket. I hopefully, they fix that in the upcoming rights. If there is ever a commentator I don’t like, I just listen to a podcast and boycott the sponsors

    2. I know Foxtel is on the nose for some people. However, as an Adelaide Crows supporter living in Canberra, I would never get to see their games if Foxtel lost the rights.

      I don’t see any free-to-air broadcaster being flexible enough to show all games, despite them having multi-channels and streaming services. I’ve tried the 7+ streaming service and it has two problems – annoying repetitive ads as well as an inability to live pause.

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