Pay TV set to bid on AFL gamesCAROLINE WILSON
December 3, 2009 THE AFL appears to have succeeded in lobbying the Federal Government to have four home-and-away games a week removed from its protected list of free-to air-television sporting events.
It is understood that Foxtel will have the right to bid independently for the four games in the next broadcast rights negotiations with the government soon to announce changes to anti-siphoning legislation.
Currently, pay TV can only purchase AFL games from a free-to-air carrier. Fox Sports bought the rights to half of the AFL's home-and-away series in the current $780 million, five-year broadcast package from a consortium formed by Channels Seven and Ten.
In a significant cultural shift that follows years of pressure from the AFL, the Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is expected to announce changes to the legislation later this month.
In other changes, some early round matches from grand slam tennis tournaments, including Wimbledon and the Australian Open, are expected to be removed from the free-to-air list along with some big international golf tournaments.
Foxtel executive Peter Campbell would not speculate last night as to whether his company had been successful in its submission to Conroy.
''We've always been consistent in our hopes that subscription television be unfettered in its right to bid for big sporting events whether that be AFL or any of our big productions,'' he said.
''We want to direct our relationships to the sporting organisation themselves rather than deal with free-to-air networks.''
The AFL's free-to-air broadcasters have been bracing themselves for changes to the legislation as has the Nine Network, which yesterday reinforced its commitment to play a major part in the next AFL broadcast rights that begins in 2012 and is expected to run for five years.
The AFL, which will be selling a nine-game weekly package along with finals that will remain exclusive as first-run free-to-air events, believes it can sell the next rights package for $1 billion. The figure is expected to include on-line rights.
The Nine Network's executive director Jeff Browne delivered a subtle broadside to his free-to-air rival Channel Seven, saying: ''The AFL seems to have taken on board comments from our competitors that we will not be a serious bidder.
''They said the same about the Olympics which we outbid them for, along with the Warner Bros deal we achieved recently and the Australian Masters Golf with Tiger Woods.
''We are very much in it. We've done a lot of work over the last few months modelling our plans on various contingencies that could come from the anti-siphoning review.''
The Nine Network, which has partnered with Foxtel for the Olympic Games, has said in the past that the pay television carrier would prove an ideal AFL broadcast-rights partner. With Foxtel now expected to be allowed to bid independently, Nine is expected to push for the remaining five home-and-away games each week and would be expected to on-sell at least two of those weekly fixtures and possibly three.
The Seven Network is contractually bound to include Channel Ten in its bid in an agreement originating from the last rights deal in which Seven and Ten imposed a now-defunct last-rights clause to outbid Nine.
However, it remains uncertain whether Ten will bid for the next broadcast rights, which all parties believe will see a deal achieved by the end of 2010, one year before the current agreement is completed.
The prevailing view among the free-to-air networks is that changes to the anti-siphoning legislation will not necessarily mean more money for broadcast rights for the AFL. It is not known whether the network's high-definition second channels, such as One HD, will be given more freedom under new legislation to show first-run sporting events.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/pay-tv-set-to-bid-on-afl-games-20091202-k4bu.html
