Evidently no.

If it is true the duel code fans arent watching the A league when their code of choice is on we have two options for the overlap. Overlap at the start or overlap at the end. Its pretty obvious that it is much better to watch the last 3/4 of a season than to watch the first 3/4

Not only that but we have this clash with the ACL to manage during the peak of our season which seems to be unfair on 2 or 3 teams.

Also the holiday season is more suited in the final 3rd of our season so we can capitalise on the holidays and then the climax of the league, instead of in the middle of the season when interest is low.

Finally it is much better for Australian based players to be match fit August to March as that is when they are most likely to be playing home based qualifiers instead of October to April.

In the period where fans are calling out for transparency and accountability I would like to see what prompted the FFA to shift to October and what they are going to do since it hasnt yeilded anything.

The swamping effect of the season launch of other football codes was also very evident with the cricket.The one day series finals extended into March for the first time I can remember and crowd figures were smashed.The Bris final was played infromt of seagulls.
The media coverage of Rugby codes has been huge and NRL crowds have gone ballistic.
The Roar crowd for the ACL given a wet week night was truly amazing given everything.But overall it's clear A-League is struggling to compete.The diehards still attend games and watch TV but the cross-overs who were watching more than games involving their own team have decided to watch the the other codes.Afterall there is so much choice and so little time.

From a purely personal perspective - that would be excellent.

Given the BS that has gone on it our game lately, and the media loving the chance to rub it in so often, confidence is just about shot anyway.Not a good recipe for sustaining interest at this point in time.

Mind you, none of those viewer numbers seem anywhere near where they usually are for any of the codes.

surprised the showpiece fixture of the season only rated 56k, Harry back in his hometown Sydney v MV....but with afl,nrl and super rugby on all at the same time was always gonna be slim pickings.

Just like everything else the official partners has an expiry date, and if you noticed when the signed the recent extension for the Optus website contract, optus's contract runs out right when the TV deal is up for grabs.

Having seen nothing from Optus as far as competing for the internet rights for the AFL and i doubt the NRL, nor the V* supercars what is it that Optus is so desperate for the HAL, it must be all those 50k viewer figures that fox is so keen to keep. If Telstra decide they want it as a value add, then they will get it easily.

News just in Telstra is also in partnership with the NRL & V8 supercars, don't act like Telstra is in some way looking after the AFL, they want content to bundle end of storey.Further no ISP will be excluded, when you have a product that is in need of cash to stay afloat, you don't go around excluding bidders, the same way the FFA would not exclude Seven if they wanted FTA rights and were willing to pay.

Yeah because Foxtel is going to sit back and watch their exclusive content being sold for a fraction of the cost whilst handing over $17m+ cheques each year, your dreaming.

Do you really think that Telstra, one of foxtels part owners is going to just sit by and do nothing and allow Optus to corner the market, something optus's has shown they are not interested in doing anyway. Do you really think that the FFA will get a streaming media service up and running in 12 months, using a business model still unproven platform instead of going with an established player. Put it this way the AFL, the biggest and most successful sporting body in Australia, has been planning on no longer selling mobile streaming rights by setting up their own media department, and it has been setup and running for a couple of years now, but they STILL haven't moved over to it and have signed a long term deal only last year. It sounds great but at the end of the day it severely undercuts the potential for the official broadcaster when your selling something cheaper and the customer does not need to pay extra for the rest of the package. This is without even looking at the associated costs of providing a decent service.

Why would Optus even remotely be interested in building operating and maintaining a highly expensive streaming service when the current streaming IPTV service they currently sell is run by another party, and how much are they going to make from it, because at 50k its not going to have a huge revenue stream. Now if you plan on trying to claim the international market as well there goes a additional $40m.

Unless your going to pay SBS to cover the games, as they made abundantly clear last TV deal, that's unlikely to happen. Most likely is that Ten or actually ONE may want some delayed action on a Sunday arvo, leading into the news, with Murdoch on the board, he should be able to get a decent deal with PMG, so that foxsports keep the Exclusive Live deal, and Ten gets the delayed action for some summer filler on one, much better then the highlights show people carry on with.

And what are they usually? What were last years afl pre-season Cup and nrl ratings averages?

It's ridiculous for any content provider to sell the rights to any one particular ISP. You immediately limit your audience. The whole idea behind internet broadcasts is that you the whole world becomes your potential customer at the click of a button.

Right now FoxSports has a platform that streams EPL matches live onto my PC/laptop where ever I am in Australia. As opposed to the Foxtel TV subscription which only allows me to watch EPL in the living room of my primary residence.

UEFA.com & the AFC also have platforms operating right now that provide LIVE access to full matches pay-per-vies (the AFC's content is geographically-blocked for AUS customers, but the platform is operating right now).

I'm pretty sure the NFL also has a platform - operating right now - which streams live NFL to customers anywhere in the world.

This is happening right now - it's not Dr Who "pie-in-the-sky" technology.



That's where the "competitive tension" will arise. If Foxtel thinks the HAL rights are worth $Xm p.a. but the FFA thinks pay-per view direct to the customer is worth more than $Xm p.a. ... suddenly we have a competitive market.



Why? Because that's one of Optus's core functions. They build & operate web-enabled platforms and charge a service fee.

And, it doesn't have to be Optus - I just mentioned Optus b/c it is an Official Partner of the FFA.

There are a multitude of Tech Providers all across the globe, who can tender for this job to build, operate & maintain the LIVE HAL platform.

The provider doesn't have to be in Australia - India, seems to have a fantastic reputation for such tech jobs.

Or, the FFA could simply use an existing LIVE sports platforms that offer pay-per-view, and have the HAL product as an "add-on". This would simply cost an annual service fee.

The options are unlimited and certainly not confined to TLS!

From what I've been told, the FFA is well on top of this issue and digital platforms will be the foundation upon which the next HAL broadcast rights are built.

It's the 21st century but you're still relying on 20th century business models.

What the stats say to me is that Rugby League deserves a bigger deal than the AFL's $1.25B
If they were to get $1.5B, I'd be happy with $300m/5 years if we are a fifth of the popularity (including Socceroos)

Well these ratings are for afl pre-season games, remember fox footy/fox sports now have the rights to EVERY afl game for the season, an afl blockbuster live on fox like a collingwood v carlton (most likely delayed on channel 7) could just about break the record for pay tv ratings....the ratings for these mickey mouse pre season afl games have been very impressive so far.

This is why the move away from conventional TV platforms is a must.

It's a long-week end in Victoria and I've been at my holiday house since Thursday night. I don't have access to Foxtel so, this w/e, I watched several HAL games on my laptop via unreliable pirate sites that broadcast the game.

I'd have gladly paid $2-3 to the FFA to watch this game on a reliable platform.

Yes, the afl deal has double the live games and the afl also has double the game time advertising minutes with it's quarter time breaks. Although nrl have always out rated the afl by quite a margin on paytv and similar to them on fta, they have these advantages.

The NRL haven't got a new deal yet so its speculative - they might put all 8 games on Fox.
Secondly, the AFL games are supposedly ad free on Fox Footy.

We will wait & see what ratings the actual AFL season gets - I would be surprised that the majority of AFL fans are holding off getting Foxtel until bang on the first round at the end of March

There's no doubt you started this thread to shitpot the A-League tv ratings every time you get a chance. Who gives a fuck how popular the AFL or the NRL are or are going to be. Get fucked you and your offsider dickhead. We don't want to know your shit.

Good idea and well thought out. I'll start by calling for the ban of any comparative ratings and broadcast figures. Not knowing is a healthier policy than upsetting awareness.

Don't think I've seen this being done before on FoxSports ...

u23 AUS v IRQ will be shown LIVE on Foxsports.com.au

Looks like FoxSports understand the 21st century reality that football fans want the flexibility to watch live sport where ever they are - not just at home in the living room.

A brave new world awaits on-line - it's a win-win for customer & supplier.

IDk about other states but the olyroos arnt on foxtel here just the website.

so your saying putting it on the web rather than using one of a dozen sports channels that Fox have is good?

Re: the NRL vs AFL tv deal. I've never watched an NRL match for more than a couple of minutes - do they have regular breaks during the game for adverts? That's always struck me as being the most attractive feature of AFL for tv (although I believe the Fox broadcasts this year will be ad-free).

Yes every time a try is scored, or a goal, or a penalty is given. there are ad breaks every thirty seconds (exaggeration, but you get the point), its funny watching the refs tell the players to slow down between trys and penalties and such for the ad break to be played.

I've watched a bit of league in my time and have never seen the refs tell players to stall for ads, so I'm not sure where you getting that from. In fact they actually tell them they have a max of 90 seconds to take dropouts, shots at goal & restarts, factor in the time for replays into that time and your really only getting one ad at best. Its actually one of the things that the broadcaster's want changed, they want it extend to allow more advertising.

As for the foxsports coverage, or lack of it, for the olyroos game, they lost my viewership all together, nothing on other then highlights shows and darts, so I tuned out. How anyone can honestly say that having a major sports broadcaster with 4 dedicated sports channels with subscriber's who pay to watch sports, flick coverage of the national men's Olympic football team to a website stream without commentary is a positive I'll never know. It really shows the esteem that fox holds for the coverage. I really don't see how forcing people to watch the olyroos on a computer or tablet is going to grow the game & support, about the only thing going for it was that its free, may as well give the rights to SBS and get national coverage.

Latest round TV ratings :

Friday

Melbourne Victory v Wellington = < 43,000


http://www.throng.com.au/ratings/free-air-tv-ratings-friday-march-16th-2012

Saturday

Central Coast v Adelaide = < 55,000

Newcastle v Brisbane = < 55,000

Melbourne Heart v Sydney FC = < 55,000


http://www.throng.com.au/ratings/free-air-tv-ratings-saturday-march-17th-2012


Sunday

Gold Coast v Perth = < 52,000

http://www.throng.com.au/ratings/free-air-tv-ratings-sunday-march-18th-2012


Once again no A-league game made top 20 programming on Friday/Saturday/Sunday.

Quite clearly people have lost interest in watching the A-league now the other football codes are in play.




Edited by Sirocco: 19/3/2012 04:42:03 PM

Edited by Sirocco: 19/3/2012 04:50:00 PM

The A-League is dead for the season now.

Yeah the october kick off seems to be a bit of a failure.

2012 crowds have been a lot lower then 2011 and tv ratings r down.

Probably more to do with The Victory and Sydney being failures, If a Kewell led Victory won games from the start it could have been a different story. Unfortunately it was the Mariners who hogged top spot and they will never have huge crowds or ratings.

Absolutely fantastic for me. I was unable to get home from the office in time & can't watch recorded sport any more.

For me, in the 21st century sport has to be live, no ad breaks & available where ever I am in the world.

By having this u23 game broadcast on the net, a couple of us stayed back at the office, grabbed a pizza, some beers & watched the full game - finally found a good use for the slide projector!

That would be one conclusion but a less biased appraisal is the ratings have gone down from a season average of 60-65k when in "clear air" but the 52k average for last weekend is 20% higher than the season average last year and equal to the Season 5 average. This is quite a good response in the analysis of the whole seasons ratings.

The figures quoted above for last weekend are the #20 rated programmes, not the aleague telecasts. As only the top 20 for each day are published and they weren't included, they were somewhere below each #20 figure. How far below, I have no idea.

I still cant for the life of me understand how the live A league games continue to rate below old simpsons episodes, world series cricket flashbacks and a whole lot of other garbage on the fox platform:?

Rating below nrl, afl, super rugby is fine...but being bumped out of the top 20 by the crappy entertainment channels is not good.

Edited by southmelb: 20/3/2012 07:01:55 PM

Does anyone know if ratings were below 55k when the season started without the so called clear air?
It looks to me that marketing by other football codes is just as intense at the beginning of the season as at the end.At finals time though many fans lose interest because thier team has dropped out.MV fans and the favt they missed the finals has also had a big affect.Although even when they still had a chance of qualifying ratings had halved.
Overall though starting later has had little impact.Kewell ,Emerton and the Roar had more of an impact.When Roar went on their losing streak a lot of their gloss disappeared.