Media buyers describe AFL rights as a ‘jewel in the crown’ as networks prepare for battle
Carat’s Simon Ryan
Australia’s media buyers are keenly watching the imminent start of the AFL sports rights negotiations in the wake last Saturday’s grand final, which drew more than 4 million viewers nationally.
Today’s Fairfax Media and News Corp newspapers all carry strategic leaks from the AFL announcing the imminent commencement of negotiations for a 10 year multi-billion dollar deal for the major sporting code, which is expected to see all the commercial TV networks and Foxtel enter the fray in the hope of securing part or all of the rights.
CEO of media agency Carat Simon Ryan, who represents major brands such as Woolworths and Virgin Airlines, said the rights were “absolutely crucial” to ratings and also the ability to cross promote other programming, and said he would watch with interest to see what type of deal a network such as Ten, which has been in the ratings doldrums, would try and forge.
Media Agencies have a vested interest in this, none more that Mediacom. They have the AFL, Seven and Foxtel as clients so you can only imagine the conversations going on!
Got this from a football blog regarding the swans TV ratings in Sydney over the last decade when they played in a GF.
“TV audiences in Sydney watching *update* @sydneyswans in #AFLGF 2005: 991k (win) 2006: 765k (loss) 2012: 610k (win) 2014: 551k (loss)”
The stats show a massive decline -440k from the peak in 2005.
& during the regular season virtually none of the Swans’ games rated over 100k in Sydney. So I’m a loss to understand how they can make the claim that the ratings have increased.
The Sydney audience
2005 was their first win as the Sydney Swans….it was a huge event for Sydney. Since then the Swans have generally been one of 4 or 5 teams that are expected to do well….so a lot of NRL & rugby fans were more complacent this year I reckon.
A lot of money for a sport that is only followed by half the country. Of course the AFL has no loyalty to Seven, they’re out for the money. They’ve got a 10 year deal because they know they’re strangling the golden goose.
HD, heh. It’s just upscaled SD you know…
“The AFL is the jewel in the crown”. I don’t think Nine will agree with that. Nine took it on in 2002 while they also had the NRL rights and they had to split the network as viewers in Sydney and Brisbane didn’t want to watch aerial ping pong. And a ten year deal? Come off it. This proves that even the AFL have doubts about the appeal of their product and want to lock in some poor sucker long-term so they can’t back out quickly if it all goes pear-shaped like it did for Nine.