★★★★★ 0/5

Report: AFL set for final push

AFL to meet with Nine, Paramount, Seven and Foxtel in a last attempt to drive up best and final broadcasting bids.

7
Leave a comment

Media reports suggest Seven and Foxtel are on the verge of a new broadcast deal for the AFL rights.

But before that takes place, execs at Nine Entertainment Co, Paramount, Seven West Media and Foxtel will present to the AFL’s top executives in what industry sources are describing as a ‘silent auction.’

The Sydney Morning Herald reports the strategy is designed to keep pressure on the current broadcast partners and generate more money than the $946 million currently being paid to the sport over the next two years.

The AFL organised the back-to-back meetings for today despite the terms of a new agreement being all but signed with Seven and Foxtel. They are asking each broadcaster for their best and final bids.

The Australian also reports the meetings are set for today.

Central to the pitches from Nine/Stan and 10/Paramount+ was the desire for exclusive rights to broadcast Thursday night games, which have been a ratings success story in 2022. Thursday night matches are likely to remain with Seven under the terms of the next deal. Foxtel is expected to secure the exclusive rights to up to four Saturday matches, which would mirror the “Super Saturday” deal it enjoys with the NRL.

Reports also claims a new deal will lead to AFL games in NSW and Queensland shown live exclusively on Foxtel and on a delay of up to two hours on Channel Seven under the terms that have been agreed. There will be no changes to the number of games on delay in South Australia and Western Australia and Victoria will be unaffected.

The existing broadcast deal still has another two years to run, meaning the next contract won’t come into effect until the beginning of the 2025 season.

Nine, Paramount, Seven, Foxtel and the AFL declined to comment.

  • Tagged with AFL

7 Responses

  1. It’s great that the AFL have got their price, but surely story will be what shows and great talent will be made redundant to pay for all of this from CH 7 and Foxtel . ???

  2. Sounds good.The push Foxtel has done for a few years showing the game Live right around Australia certainly has benefited and grown the game.No doubt if Foxtel was not involved you would still have poor coverage outside of Victoria.The game also being shown on Foxtel on some matches in 4k which i personally will look forward to next year and other’s already enjoying.I wouldn’t say Thursday games are a hit ratings they are acceptable.But having Thursday games does cause problems with the draw and drags out the week of games being played…GoCats22

  3. I have a feeling that 7/Fox will lock in a new AFL deal for 2025-30 onwards. At the end of the day it goes down to the highest bidder. Good for 7/Fox, but not good for fans. I feel that Interstste teams will have some local games shown on delay which will hurt many AFL fans.
    The big problem is JB— Yells way too much. Even when he was on 9’s cricket back in 2010, he carried on with his lame jokes and childish antics. And Same for BT. Pronounces players names in an unusual style and made some sorts of weird phrases. 7 really need to freshen up the VO. We’ve had enough of the 7 VO intro guy for 10 years. That guy did AFL on 10 back in 2002-11. They need a newer VO to revitalise its coverage. 7/Fox are so bad for 12 straight years now and haven’t done anything to change its telecast. Instead we had to suffer through the same old coverage, callers. Plus the Friday night footy starts quite 750pm and is quite late for some VIC viewers. People will feel very tired when the game is finished.

  4. “Foxtel is expected to secure the exclusive rights to up to four Saturday (AFL) matches”.
    This is the case under the current arrangements. In a usual round, five games are played on Saturday, with 7 network showing only one game (on the Saturday night).
    Under the previous deal (maybe 5 years ago), Seven showed two games on Saturday, one in the afternoon.
    The FTA games have been slowly whittled down, showing why the anti-syphoning sports rules need to be strengthened.

    1. FTA games haven’t been whittled down, they have just moved to Thursday and Friday nights which has proved popular with viewers, and for 7 as viewers have stopped watching other shows on those nights. The AFL can get a bid more money out of Foxtel for delaying games in Sydney and Brisbane on 7 that don’t rate well on 73 anyway. Seven isn’t going to be paying more for less live games. Paramount’s idea of a silent auction was announcing publically to shareholder that they were putting in a lower bid and going no higher. Nine would take exclusive rights to Thursday games, but Foxtel and Seven would never allow that. If the AFL did change things to raise more money, Albanese would just legislate to force them to sell the games cheaper to 7 to appease his supporters in Victoria. By 2030 fans will stream the games they want when they want, and the finals will remain live on FTA, because that’s what most people want to watch.

      1. “FTA games haven’t been whittled down, they have just moved to Thursday and Friday nights”
        Not according to my maths!
        Channel 7 use to show 2 matches on Saturday for all 22 rounds, now show only one.
        And the AFL only have Thursday night games for about 11 rounds per year.
        So going from 2 games per round (on Saturday) to one game on Saturday plus one game on half the Thursdays = whittling down!
        (Also, some rounds where there was a Thurs game, 7 didn’t show a game on Sunday at all. More whittling down!)

Leave a Reply