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.
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.