Some interesting figures from FFA

[midfielder]

Sorry if this has been linked before but I cannot recall it so post the link here and one key part as I see it.

http://www.producegroup.com.au/docs/ffa_fact_sheet.pdf

Very interesting to me was the rating for the World Cup and 2005 qualifer as follows:-

Cumulative Australian TV audience figures for November 2005 World Cup Qualifier,
and FIFA World Cup 2006 matches. Look at the Roy Morgan figures and the times the matches where played.

.............................................OzTam ratings .....Roy Morgan Poll
Qualifier v Uruguay (8pm - 10pm ... 3.416 mill ........ 8.501 mill
World Cup v Japan (11pm - 1am)... 2.897 mill ........ 7.115 mill
World Cup v Brazil (2am - 4am) .....2.082 mill ........ 4.596 mill
World Cup v Croatia (5am - 7am) ...2.581 mill ........ 6.507 mill
World Cup v Italy (1am - 3am) ......3.014 mill ........ 6.691 mill
Note:
OzTam are the official ratings, but do not measure out-of-home viewership (e.g. in
pubs and clubs). The Roy Morgan Poll is a survey-type measurement, deemed to be
a more accurate measurement of the actual number of viewers.

 

[FFC Mariner]

I suspect its those numbers that will see FTA want the Socceroos games in probably a sharing deal with Fox when the contract comes up

FTA will only want the bigger games and WC itself and leave the rest to pay tv IMHO

 

[Redline]

Who do people think is most likely to take the FTA stuff? Ten seems to be the most sports friendly channel at the moment.

 

[Honkee]

I think its a bit of a joke that with fta sports, I can watch nascar, nba, American "football" and base ball (on the fta digital channels) and yet, I cant catch an A-league game. Derek Jeter can bugger off, I wanna watch the a Mariners game

 

[Part_Timer]

preety sure fta wanted SFA to do with aleague when it started now its grown they want in..i say forza fox

 

[dibo]

preety sure fta wanted SFA to do with aleague when it started now its grown they want in..i say forza fox

no contre al calcio moderno?

surely you'd not want any matches on television, as that discourages people from going to games and you'd want them all at 3pm on a saturday?

fox are the reason behind such colossal clusterf**ks as thursday night games and matches being played in perth at 5pm in january while it's still 36 degrees.

 

[Jimmy]

FTA would f**k over the A-league big time, I'm happy with it on Fox and I hope it stays there.

 

[clarence]

Who do people think is most likely to take the FTA stuff? Ten seems to be the most sports friendly channel at the moment.

Take a step back for a second and look at the stocks of the FTA networks.

Ten has significant problems with their owner CanWest.

Kerry Stokes over at 7 isn't having a great time with his network either.

The syndicate that bought 9 off Packer is ruing the decision as the brand slips in credibility and loss of advertising.

All networks have not weathered the economic upheavals very well. They are also lumbered with the expenditure of rolling out more digital channels, as well as everyone's perception of them they must have a squillion $$ to spend on rights issues.

Couple with that the rise of Fox and throw in for good measure the Net's dirty little secret (streaming), and you see that all is not rosy over at FTA land.

The last thing 7 wants to do is get involved with any more sport. They have paid a fortune for AFL and in the end may drive them broke.

10 does not have money to get a decent bid up.

9 is very preoccupied trying to make the money it has poured into Cricket and NRL over the years work for them with better revenue.

They'd be interested, yes, but for a bargain price only.

At the moment the A-League is doing well out of Foxtel, and they out of us. Boost the comp to 10 teams next year, and possibly another 2 more teams the season after, and then assess how the pay TV ratings are and whether the FTA people should be ALLOWED to have a slice of the pie. Til then they can choke on their own bile.

We should allow the 'product' of the A-League to develop into it's own mature, well followed and watched game before allowing the FTA people to make offers. That way the FFA (probably with Foxtel) can drive the terms and conditions of any deal as the product is proven and successful.

 

[Arabmariner]

I think the only thing fta should get as far as the a-league is concerned is a highlights package once a week.And tbh that would probably provide your casual sports viewer with enough football of this standard.Give them too many live games and they get bored.

A highlights package once a week could get some people interested enough to go out and attend a game now and then.

 

[NewyForever]

Have 2 games a week of A-League on FTA (either sbs or ten) and leave the rest to fox.  This would increase exposure, popularity and therefore sponsorship of the league and how many sides we have by 2013.  There could also be a highlights show on 4pm sundays before the world game starts.

Socceroos desperately need to get back on FTA.

 

[clarence]

Newy: SBS won't offer decent money for anything unless it also involves WCQ rights. They simply don't have the money and never will. Plus their 'exposure' potential is limited given their average audience levels.

Forget Ten. Financially they are only one or two steps away from throwing their hands up with the majority owner, CanWest. If they bid for any FTA rights, they'd offer peanuts.

Two games a week is level with what the 9 network throws up for NRL on FTA, isn't it? That's a lot of commitment for some network to make (both timeslot wise and expenditure wise), and I'm not sure that Australia has one ready for that sort of commitment at this stage for the A-League.


I'd add that it may be wise for the FFA (and Foxtel) to hold off on any discussions with any FTA network until this GFC spans out and how the FTA people manage their own networks under the strain of all that is happening economically. I suspect at least one of them might go belly up - and you wouldn't want the FFA to do a deal with a FTA network only to have it go bust and then the contract not honoured somehow - or the product warehoused.

 

[FFC Mariner]

I caught the tail end of a sports report on 2UE this morning where apparently News & the NRL are holding talks with a view to handing control of the comp back to the clubs??

If true, that could signal News trying to exit what they might see as a poor investment and given the way the clubs run things even with the NRL above them, who knows how badly they will f**k up on their own.

Interesting if this is the 1st sign of their corporate support getting cold feet

 

[Redline]

It was supposed to be on the news tonight as well..somethign about control being handed back to the teams, but I missed it.

Found an article though...

NRL may be owned by clubs: Gallop
March 18, 2009 - 8:20AM

The NRL will consider handing over ownership of the competition to its clubs in the biggest structural overhaul of its history, league chief David Gallop has revealed in Rugby League Week.

News Limited and the Australian Rugby League have been co-owners of the NRL since 1998 but a sub-committee is looking at a new structure which would give both organisations the chance to eliminate or reduce their involvement.

Members of that sub-committee had hoped to keep the dramatic plan secret but South Sydney owner Russell Crowe let the cat out of the bag on the Footy Show last week, although he presented the proposal as an mere suggestion.

Gallop admits in RLW out on Wednesday that "the idea that clubs become direct owners of the NRL is one that is currently being looked at".

"The equity in the NRL would be an asset added to each club's balance sheet." Gallop said.

"I'm sure Russell's ideas will be taken on board."

 

[clarence]

I caught the tail end of a sports report on 2UE this morning where apparently News & the NRL are holding talks with a view to handing control of the comp back to the clubs??

If true, that could signal News trying to exit what they might see as a poor investment and given the way the clubs run things even with the NRL above them, who knows how badly they will f**k up on their own.

Interesting if this is the 1st sign of their corporate support getting cold feet

Ooh, that would be big news, FFC.

Could end up meaning the end of the NRL and a return to NSW and Qld leagues. In these times, it would be very hard to attract new sponsors and corporate interests to inject the money that the News people have in the NRL, for an Australian wide (woops East Coast Australia-wide) comp.

News Ltd has copped a battering too, in recent times, so maybe they want out of an expensive play thing. Or, maybe it was in the original deal with the News Ltd, NSW & Qld RL folks & ARL, to hand back control to the franchisees after a period of time?

The 'product', for Pay TV, does rate very well in NSW & Qld, and it is a handy 'product' to tie in with the UK Super League for their audience, which is massive in population size, compared to ours.

As for ruining their own comp, think about it for a minute FFC.

They ran their own comps - very successfully - for many years before they tried desperately to outbid Rupert and the Super League, and realised they didn't have the capital to keep waging war & continuing a split code would have meant ruin in Australia.

 

[Redline]

I remember when it was the NSWRL...and then the ARL and then the Superleague screwed it all up.

 

[FFC Mariner]

So the "equity" in the comp goes onto the clubs balance sheet as an asset huh?

So where did the liability go? Are the NRL going to gift the equity or will it be a "loan"?

Looks like Uncle Rupert is heading for the lifeboat methinks.

A NSW/QLd run comp without a global partner such as News would v quickly shrick back to its real roots - a small suburban comp.

Good news for any global game IMHO

 

[Redline]

Would also bring in the outrageous salaries I think...very quickly as the clubs would be run into the ground trying to pay some of the crazy sums of money

OR

they would lose everyone to the English comp, or to the French Rugby comp.

 

[clarence]

So the "equity" in the comp goes onto the clubs balance sheet as an asset huh?

So where did the liability go? Are the NRL going to gift the equity or will it be a "loan"?

Looks like Uncle Rupert is heading for the lifeboat methinks.

My thoughts exactly when I read that too. "Here's your assets......oh, and here's your liabilities too guys"

A NSW/QLd run comp without a global partner such as News would v quickly shrick back to its real roots - a small suburban comp.

Good news for any global game IMHO

I don't think so FFC.

In their day, the NSWRL and QRL were very tribal and their derbies were quite a sellout - it is something they could capitalise upon, but they'd lose a lot of the bandwagoners as they'd simply could not afford all the luxuries of the big stadia etc.

But to split into state wide comps would be viewed by many, both in general public and business world as a backward step for the code and that would have an impact until it either found it's feet or folded.

I could foresee a "Back to Belmore" or "Back to Leichhardt Oval" style of marketing that could get a lot of people who haven't been to a RL game for years, going along.

Yes, Redline, a lot of the present top players would simply wander off to the UK or French leagues or convert to Rugby. But there's only so many spots in other comps. or in Rugby.

 

[Redline]

So the "equity" in the comp goes onto the clubs balance sheet as an asset huh?

So where did the liability go? Are the NRL going to gift the equity or will it be a "loan"?

Looks like Uncle Rupert is heading for the lifeboat methinks.

My thoughts exactly when I read that too. "Here's your assets......oh, and here's your liabilities too guys"

A NSW/QLd run comp without a global partner such as News would v quickly shrick back to its real roots - a small suburban comp.

Good news for any global game IMHO

I don't think so FFC.

In their day, the NSWRL and QRL were very tribal and their derbies were quite a sellout - it is something they could capitalise upon, but they'd lose a lot of the bandwagoners as they'd simply could not afford all the luxuries of the big stadia etc.

But to split into state wide comps would be viewed by many, both in general public and business world as a backward step for the code and that would have an impact until it either found it's feet or folded.

I could foresee a "Back to Belmore" or "Back to Leichhardt Oval" style of marketing that could get a lot of people who haven't been to a RL game for years, going along.

I think that's how they'd have to market it.

 

[FFC Mariner]

Agreed but you are now a national firm looking for good reach for your advertising $$$ - you want to do a Sydney/Qld suburban comp (regardless how strong in its own back yard?)

Less support from leagues clubs every year and the insurance industry is getting the same vibes about grog as it was about asbestos and then tobacco - the advertising ban didnt get up this time but one day it will happen.