ABC is the front runner for free-to-air football rights
ABC is a front runner for the commercial free to air Football Federation Australia A-League and Socceroos matches, as the other four networks failed to bid.
Network Ten, Seven West Media, Nine Entertainment and FFA’s current rights holder SBS are thought to have not participated in the formal bidding process, while the ABC is said to be in current discussions with the federation, reports the Australian Financial Review.
Although four of the five major networks have ceased to bid for the rights, it is said there have been multiple bids, meaning Telstra could also be part of the bidding process for the streaming rights, according to an AFR source.
Discussions between the FFA and Seven, Ten and Nine have taken place, however, no deal was made and no official bids were made as the broadcaster’s did not receive adequate prices or terms.
The bidding for the football rights started earlier this year with the FFA already signing a $356 million broadcast deal with Fox Sports, but still looking to sign a free to air deal by May.
A spokesperson from SBS, told Mumbrella: “SBS doesn’t comment on contract negotiations.”
FFA, Seven and Nine have been approached for comment while Ten and ABC declined to comment.
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My off the wall suggestions would require to make football and free-to-air really worth it.
1)14/16 team competition perhaps in two divisions.
2)Teams “pair” for each broadcast market eg 2 Melbourne teams, two NZ teams, 2 Sydney teams, 2 Queensland teams etc
3)Paired teams have home and away mirror, when one is at home the other is away.
4)Fixed times for home games eg
-NZ home game always played 5pm EST (7pm local time)
-Newcastle/Central Coast always played 7pm EST
-Sydney home game always played 5pm Saturday
-Melbourne home game always played 7pm Saturday
-Canberra/Wollongong home game always played 5pm Sunday
-Queensland home game always played 7pm Sunday
-SA/WA home game always played 9pm EST (7pm Perth time)
5) Sell home games to individual broadcast markets ie the home Sydney game is sold to one Sydney station.
6)The full set of games sold to pay TV.
Hard core fans will still pay to watch all their teams games on cable. Casual fans will have a standard time they can sit down and watch a team they are interested in play.
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