Also, that A-League game is coming in at around 40% of the AFL game, but there broadcast deal is 8 times that of the A-League, which goes to show just how over-priced the AFL deal is

This is really interesting, link to an Australian SVOD study.

https://www.media-partners-asia.com/files/mpa/262/AustraliaSVODStudy.pdf

An Examination of Usage, Paying Subscribers, Content Supply & Demand

SHARE OF SVOD HOUSEHOLD SPEND BY SERVICE (A$)6§
The average monthly spend on SVOD services per household is A$35.30. Of this 14% is spent on sports SVODs (A$11.94).§Netflix commands the largest share of SVOD household spending with 42% share of wallet followed by Stan and Foxtel Now in 2ndand 3rdrespectively.§NRL Live Pass occupies over half the sports SVOD share of household spend (54%) followed by Kayo (21%) and AFL Live Pass (14%) respectively.

Interestingly, the NRL Live Pass accounts for over half of all paid subscriptions for sports related SVOD, Kayo 2nd, AFL 3rd (but is a long way behind), and Optus was in last place behind BEIN.

The Marsh series are glorified training games that nobody is really interested in beyond who didn't get hurt.  That it would be compared to a regular series A league game, and compare favourably is saying something.  And the Marsh series didn't even exist when the AFL TV deal was done, so its value in that deal is about zero.

Marsh Series = JLT Series. Marsh literally bought the JLT company and rebranded

A-League history will be made this weekend - for the first time Fox Sports commentators will call a domestic match off the television, rather than in person.

Fox won't have their usual commentators in the booth for Sunday's clash between Perth Glory and Melbourne City at NIB Stadium. The AFL and NRL pre-seasons are in full swing, evidently leaving the pay-TV network short on available personnel, and so the game will be called from the eastern seaboard, sources close to the organisation have confirmed.

It happens regularly for overseas matches involving the Socceroos, Matildas and Olyroos, while all recent away games for Australian teams in the AFC Champions League are called 'off the box' - but until now, Fox has always had one of their commentators on hand for every A-League match.

It's a sign of the times, with Fox looking to cut costs where it can amid a declining subscriber base and the migration of viewers to Kayo Sports. It's also nothing new - all games in the NBL this season, except for those in New Zealand, have been broadcast from a centralised hub in Melbourne rather than courtside.

They should have been doing this a long time ago.  Get rid of the babbling idiots like Speed and just have Simon call all games.

Adam Papalia usually calls Perth based HAL and AFL games, so there must be a clash or something. Speedy also calls AFL and NRL. I have no problem with this as long as the commentary calls are accurate. its a sign of the times. 

Does that mean people care though?  Have not heard anybody even mention the Marsh series, most people see it as an extension of the practice games.

must be quite rare to find someone calling all three sports

Not sure where to make this comment and I havent seen anyone mention this before, but on Optus' Scores Sunday, Scott McDonald was involved in the discussion team, the A-league and NPL results were all displayed at the bottom of the screen and an NPL highlights were even shown as they shortly mentioned the NPL Vic table.

I know its a really minor thing to mention but it does show further that Optus have interest in Australian football

Saturday FTA Sport
Davis Cup Gem
Australia v Brazil 82,000

AFLW Seven/7mate
North Melbourne v Adelaide 65,000
GSW v Richmond 53,000
A-League ABC
Newcastle v Perth 46,000
Saturday Subscription TV Sport
Cricket ODI Fox Cricket
South Africa v Australia Game 3: 76,000
AFL Marsh Series Fox Footy
West Coast v Fremantle 61,000
Port Adelaide v Bulldogs 58,000
AFLW Fox Footy
GWS v Richmond 22,000
Carlton v St Kilda 20,000
North Melbourne v Adelaide 18,000

SuperRugby Fox Sports
Hurricanes v Blues 37,000
Rebels v Lions 32,000

A-League Fox Sports
Melbourne Victory v Sydney 28,000
Adelaide v Western United 14,000

Yesterday's ratings on Fox, dominated by womens cricket world cup, cuts out at 35k

Report:	Top 20 Programs
Channels:	All Subscription Channels
Market:	National STV
Demographics:	Total People
Day-part:	02:00 – 26:00
Day:	Sunday
Date:	08/03/2020
Deliverable:	Overnight
Rank	Description	Channel\Market	(r) National STV
1	LIVE: ICC WOMEN’S T20 INNINGS BREAK	FOX CRICKET	341,000
2	LIVE: ICC WT20 WORLD CUP: FINAL	FOX CRICKET	315,000
3	LIVE: ICC WOMEN’S T20 POST GAME	FOX CRICKET	290,000
4	LIVE: ICC WT20 WORLD CUP: FINAL	FOX CRICKET	237,000
5	ODI RSA V AUS GAME 3	FOX CRICKET	117,000
6	LIVE: CRICKET: ICC WT20 WORLD CUP: FINAL	FOX SPORTS MORE	102,000
7	LIVE: ICC WOMEN’S T20 INNINGS BREAK	FOX SPORTS MORE	102,000
8	LIVE: CRICKET: ICC WOMEN’S T20 POST GAME	FOX SPORTS MORE	95,000
9	LIVE: ICC WOMEN’S T20 PRE GAME	FOX CRICKET	93,000
10	LIVE: CRICKET: ICC WT20 WORLD CUP: FINAL	FOX SPORTS MORE	91,000
11	LIVE: MARSH SERIES: COLL V ST K	FOX FOOTY	91,000
12	OUTSIDERS	Sky News Live	57,000
13	LIVE: MARSH SERIES: GWS V RICHMOND	FOX FOOTY	55,000
14	OUTSIDERS	Sky News Live	51,000
15	MIDSOMER MURDERS	UKTV	43,000
16	LIVE: MARSH SERIES: CARLTON V BRISBANE	FOX FOOTY	42,000
17	LIVE: CRICKET: ICC WOMEN’S T20 PRE GAME	FOX SPORTS MORE	38,000
18	BASKETBALL: WNBL: FINAL G3 STH V CAN	FOX SPORTS MORE	37,000
19	SELLING HOUSES AUSTRALIA	Lifestyle Channel	35,000
20	24 HOURS IN EMERGENCY	Lifestyle Channel	35,000

Who actually watches this stuff? Is there some sort of demographic breakdown?

I don't know, I didn't watch it, but there was so much publicity about the game, breaking records, and all of that, and it's a WC final involving an Australian side, so we shouldn't be surprised at such big ratings (by the way, another 531k were watching on GEM, so we are talking about a very big rating program).

Fuck that must have been an exciting innings break

It's very interesting how womens sports have come alive.Especially womens cricket,which has always been there.Is it a case of promotion making the difference or T20?
It does  show what a significant impact media can make on anything.With the general push for womens sports all over TV and in society in general,the popularity has followed.
The big popular male sports of Cricket,AFL and NRL have all made a conscious decision to spend money on women in the game.Before that happened all were unable to get media presence.
Anyway everything has changed and comparing any tradtional male dominated sport to a female sport as a way of being derogatory is no longer relevant.

Cricket gets so many benefits from media exposure and throwing money at things has just boosted the hype.

If we manage to win the bid for the 2023 Football Woman’s World Cup then it will be interesting to see the media interest it gets. Won’t be surprised if the Cricket receives far more media than we do in that situation, even though the cricket version is only played by a very limited number of countries and is mainly only propped up by the support for the game from one (India).

As for the ratings of the A-League, the days of the 100k+ derbies are a tiny dot in the rear view mirror. It’s getting to the point that we may just have to say will the last person watching please turn out the lights. Such a sad state things have got to.

With the women’s cricket they were smart they made cheap tickets and advertised Katy perry by the time Australia made it to the final they had sold 55k and they stopped talking about kate perry it was all about breaking the crowd record and Australia winning the final 

Just in regards to the on site broadcasting for sports....

All of the OB truck facilities on location have always been supplied by a third party company (it used to be Global, now NEP who acquired them and also look after the pre-production for the AFL and cricket now) and are hired out by the networks on game day.

They're generally the same group of freelancers who change their bibs depending on which network they're working for on the day - the networks generally only need to send a small crew along with commentators around for their own hosting.

NEP is also very interesting now as they have hubs in Sydney and Melbourne that they can operate, without having to send a truck to the location.... all they do is send a skeleton crew with cameras and everything is sent back to the hub to be switched and broadcast back out again.

So the Olympics will likely be broadcast out of a shed in the Docklands....

There was talk NEP might acquire Sky Sports in NZ, and hypothetically they could produce and broadcast the Mitre10 Cup [NZ local rugby competition]  from their Sydney hub.

If they have can as is being suggested run out of the Sydney hub a NZ Rugby competition it means that all A-League games could be run out of either a Sydney or Melbourne hub.

They are becoming a very influential player, because if they can operate in Sydney & Melbourne out of a hub rather than using trucks and broadcast vehicles, costs I assume will fall... meaning streaming companies will be able to buy content cheaper than before and maybe even reduce the number of cameras for some codes or some games.

this is a good point

This is the type of information that allows people to understand potential broadcast costs and therefore potential pricing for rights to broadcast. Thanks Mid.

^^^^^^^
Mark, it also allows for some deal making, my guess is NEP make a reasonable profit.

Imagine if NEP given their reduced costs provided content free to a code in return for a percentage of media revenue ... both sides take a risk a low media revenue and NEP get less and the code get more... a high media deal and NEP are miles in front....

Imagine NEP send a single camera to a Div 2 game, and FFA provide the broadcasters, the cost would be very small but the picture quality quite high...  it would make things like Bar TV able to bid for pub broadcasting rights....

Cricket being the national sport so easy to do. 

matildas did not even make the top 20 last night 

This almost seems unimportant given current events, but thought I'd do a quick review of the Fox ratings for the weekend.

Friday 13 March
A-League did not make the top 20, which cut out at 32k.  NRL top show with 254k.

Sat 14 March
A-League did not make the top 20, which cut out at 31k (Super rugby:  Sunwolves vs Crusaders).
NRL top show with 247k.
Super Rugby and AFLW both got two games in the top 20.

Sun 15 March
A-League did not make the top 20, which cut out at 36k.  NRL top show with 235k.
Super Rugby and AFLW both got one game in the top 20.

that's a shame no other football league on hell not even afl 

media attention, beyond the effects of the virus has dropped off, if that were possible, and the migration of football fans off the Fox platform is probably now complete

how does everyone think the tv ratings will be this weekend?

Probably better than usual, but empty stadiums.. lack of atmosphere etc will hurt A-League as TV product more than other codes.

Side Note:  Sydney vs Perth last week 67K on ABC, is that highest on ABC for the season?

Kicking goals: Seven enjoys bumper ratings for AFL season opener

The MCG may have been empty because of the coronavirus pandemic but Channel Seven enjoyed a bumper night of ratings to open the new AFL season

Figures sourced by The Age show the clash between Richmond and Carlton - held before an empty stadium - were the highest in five years for the now-traditional season opener.The average national audience for the free-to-air network was 1,024,000, up 4.4 per cent on the 981,000 of last year.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/kicking-goals-seven-enjoys-bumper-ratings-for-afl-season-opener-20200320-p54c4t.html