THE head of the Ten Network has promised to give the A-League “the respect it deserves”, after signing a two-year deal to become the competition’s free-to-air home.
From Round One of the new season Ten will simulcast the A-League’s Saturday night fixture as well as the finals and Socceroos friendlies, with Ten CEO Paul Anderson pledging to cross-promote the coverage across the network.
The deal was only finalised in recent days after Football Federation Australia held a tender process with the FTA channels and ABC. Under its terms, Fox Sports will pay FFA $2m a year to assume the FTA rights for the next two seasons and onsell to Ten, who Anderson said would initially give its weekly game “consistent and stable scheduling” on its One sibling channel.
The deal heralds the advent of the A-League onto commercial TV, coming after three years on SBS where viewing figures suffered from a perceived lack of promotion, with the move into a less niche environment seen as essential to building the competition’s brand.
Sydney FC players celebrate their A-League grand final win.Ten will take Fox Sports’ entire production, including match commentary, with the pay-TV network viewing the move as promotion for its subscription packages. The selected games will also be streamed live on the Ten Play app, as well as Foxtel Go.
Though Anderson said he was open to the possibility of showing games on the main Ten network eventually, he said the priority was building viewer loyalty for the A-League.“We’ve been talking to the FFA for quite some time because we believe the A-League needs to be on free to air, and people need to be able to find it,” said Anderson.
“Football as a participation sport is obviously huge and the A-League is growing.“We want to treat it with the respect it deserves, to promote it and give it scheduling consistency. We want to give it a regular timeslot, and give it the chance to grow. We can promote it through our news bulletins, through programs like The Project — through a range of appropriate shows.“That benefits us, and gives us a chance to use A-League talent in building the competition’s profile.
If you look at any of our properties, when you have good talent it helps us across a range of shows.”Anderson said the key for the competition was in giving it a predictable home, allowing viewers to know where to find it.
The Ten Network has signed a two-year deal to broadcast A-League games.“The Women’s Big Bash is a good example of a show that began on One but when its numbers grew it was moved to Ten. But consistency is the key, you can’t chop and change.”FFA CEO David Gallop said the move would give the A-League unprecedented reach.“This new arrangement is an opportunity to showcase the game for the first time on a channel with a history of promoting major sport,” said Gallop.
“It will take our major games, including derbies, into every Australian household for the first time, as well as the finals and certain Socceroos games within our control.“It’s part of our overall deal with Fox Sports and is part of working with them to drive subscription packages so as many people as possible can see the A-League. It’s an important part of the growth of our media value for the future.”Fox Sports CEO Patrick Delany called it “a great result” for the game.
“The arrangement between Fox Sports and Network Ten will ensure more fans than ever before get to watch the best Australian footballers in action every week,” he said.“A prime-time Saturday night A-League match on free-to-air, featuring FOX SPORTS’ expert commentators and world class production, will help grow the game and build football for long-term success.”