Footy takes a hit on TV (Herald-Sun)

[one-eyed]

Footy takes a hit on TV

    * Jon Ralph
    * From: Herald Sun
    * July 16, 2010


THE AFL has blamed a series of blow-outs for poor TV audiences this year, with viewer figures for some time-slots nearly 25 per cent down from last season.

The league is on track for a season of record attendances and memberships, but some time-slots have been plagued by poor spectacles and even worse audience figures.

A run of mediocre games and one-sided football has seen Ten's Saturday night audiences drop from a Melbourne average of 374,000 last year to 283,000 this season.

Ten will close the year with a raft of bumper games that started with last Saturday's Geelong-Hawthorn clash.

But it believes the quality of football in the Saturday night slot, when compared to recent years, has hit its figures hard.

Channel 7's Friday night football audiences are down 8.9 per cent, from an average of 462,000 last year to 421,000 this season.

But the quality of games on Foxtel's Saturday night coverage has seen its figures jump by as much as 20 per cent.

The revelation that some figures are so far down comes at a critical time for the league, which is hoping to negotiate a $1 billion TV rights deal for 2012-16.

It has never been more clear that quality games drive ratings, with Greater Western Sydney and the Gold Coast unlikely to provide strong contests in their early years.

AFL chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan said yesterday the league was still happy with the overall trend.

"Some slots are up, some are down. The ratings are still generally good, and we are certainly pleased that we are on track to break the attendance record and the club membership record," McLachlan told the Herald Sun.

Media analyst Steve Allen, of Fusion Strategy, said he believed the AFL would be disappointed with the figures.

"The AFL ratings are definitely soft, which is in contrast to the NRL. They are down in Seven and Ten's night slots, but they are bouncing around a lot," Allen said yesterday.

Tonight's Adelaide-Geelong clash is another clash that would have looked spectacular on paper in March, but now is far from must-see spectacle.

The AFL is thrilled with attendances, and on the latest figures - up four per cent -is confident it will post yet another record.

Club memberships again will smash records, although the number of three and four-game memberships sold means that is no longer such an unqualified success.

An anticipated strong finals series, featuring mainly Melbourne teams, should also boost ratings for Seven and Ten.

"There are four or five teams that can win (the premiership)," McLachlan said.

Media experts say new ratings estimates, which measure "time-shifting" devices such as digital video recorders, have seen ratings down in all areas.

But the AFL said the rate of people time-shifting football is much less than for movies and other TV programs.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/footy-takes-a-hit-on-tv/story-e6frf9if-1225892366093

[richmondrules]

Stupid FTA rarely televise out matches this year. We're constantly playing on Foxtel. Of course Foxtel are reaping the benefits. 

[Stripes]

Stupid FTA rarely televise out matches this year. We're constantly playing on Foxtel. Of course Foxtel are reaping the benefits. 

All jokes aside, I think you are right RROFO. Especially in the last 6 rounds, we have been the team to watch! A lot of the teams the AFL and Networks thought would perform well this year haven't and therefore the exciting matchups haven't eventuated. Teams like Brisbane, Adelaide, West Coast, Essendon, Carlton and even Sydney to some degree have been disappointments but traditionally generate a lot of interest which is not happening. Geelong, Saints and the Hawks do not have massive supporter bases despite their recent success and higher than normal membership numbers while Freo is uninteresting to most supporters other than their own.

Other clubs fighting for positions in the 8 such as the Dogs, North, Sydney and Port barely have a supporter to rub together between them so Collingwood remains the Networks lone hand in the finals at present. If Carlton can start to step up along with the Hawks then that may spark the rating again.

Watch out if the Tigers continue their run - the ratings would soar! 

Stripes

[Stripes]

Just one more point -

Terrible time for this to happen with the TV rights just around the corner. Interesting that a News Limited owned paper would report it and mention how the NRL figures are trending up while ours are going down this season, now isn't it.    I smell an NRL agenda if ever I did. With all the negative press the NRL and News Limited is receiving, they need to cling to some sort of success and try and give the AFL a hit at the same time.

Hope this doesn't affect the dollars coming into the game regardless.

Stripes

[mightytiges]

The anti-Aussie Rules media up north ignore the fact that an Aussie Rules game goes for 3 hours and is far more easier to include regular commercials (after each goal) than the other codes. So even if the live friday night NRL claims ratings of 600k to the AFL's delayed coverage of 550k say, the AFL is averaging its figures over 3 hours compared to the NRL's two. Add to that the AFL has yet to go down the path of live games and a moving fixture to have the best games of the week on a Friday and Saturday nights.

If Foxtel's ratings were down as well then the AFL would be worried but they are up 20%. Clearly the better games and more popular teams as RROFO said have been on pay TV. I mean how many people would've got pumped up to watch Port vs Collingwood and Carlton vs Brisbane minus Fev and Brown in the previous two Friday nights  . Even last night as good a game as it was was hardly a must-see leading into it.

I think it was the Age during the week that had a quote from someone from Ch 7 that inflation alone will see the AFL reach it's $1b figure. The problem is the FTA networks are waiting to what happens with the siphoning laws. The FTA want the status quo to remain where you'd presume Foxtel on the back of a 20% increase will want a greater slice of the AFL pie and would be willing to pay $$$ for it.

[one-eyed]

When too much football is enough
RICHARD HINDS
July 29, 2010

IF TIMING really is everything, then a mid-season slide in ratings for the AFL’s marquee free-to-air Friday night and Saturday night matches will be of some concern for the league as it attempts to reach the magic number of $1billion when the TV rights negotiations recommence after the federal election.

On the surface, some of the recent ratings figures do not justify the AFL’s oft-stated belief it is entitled to an almost 33per cent increase on the current $760million rights deal with Seven, Ten and Foxtel. Not when its major rival, rugby league, is gaining similar aggregate figures in Sydney and Brisbane markets for a much smaller fee.

Average Melbourne audiences for Seven’s Friday night replay have slipped from  462,000 last year to below 420,000 this season, while Ten’s Saturday night games (half-hour delayed when the game is in Melbourne, live when  interstate) have tumbled from an average of 374,000 last year to 283,000 — a figure that will not go unnoticed by Ten’s Sydney-based executives, who’ve been seen flirting with National Rugby League executives.

Inevitably, this has emboldened some rivals to take a swipe at Seven and Ten. Eddie McGuire, no doubt posturing for Nine to regain a share of the rights, cited Seven’s coverage of Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams’s final game against Collingwood in round 15 as an example of the allegedly poor quality of the current production. McGuire says  Seven’s Friday night coverage lacks the drama, storyline and strong journalism that was the hallmark of Nine’s coverage  (2002-2006).

Former Nine Footy Show producer Ralph Horowitz used a  blog to  criticise all three current broadcasters for failing to provide strong storylines — he claimed Foxtel did not put enough emphasis on the ramifications for beleaguered Essendon coach Matthew Knights after a gutting defeat by West Coast — and cutting production costs.

For its part, the AFL has blamed the one-sided nature of some contests this season — exaggerated, somewhat, by the fact the top teams separated themselves from the pack early on. As the AFL attempts to have the anti-siphoning legislation changed so it can deal directly with Foxtel, the pay subscriber has also been given a better mix of games this season and  ratings have increased accordingly.

A recent example: just 225,000 people watched the round 16 Saturday night match played in Darwin between the Western Bulldogs and Port Adelaide on Ten; until this year, it would have been shown by Foxtel. Even with Essendon struggling, Ten could have expected far greater ratings from the Essendon-West Coast match, which was broadcast by Foxtel on the same Saturday night.

However, in a winter when the World Cup  provided a welcome distraction and the hysterical between-game coverage of so-called AFL ‘‘news’’ on talk-back radio and rapidly proliferating TV panel shows grows, perhaps the soft  ratings have more to do with the coverage of the game as a whole rather than the manner in which matches are being shown.

At a time when, to paraphrase the legendary Roy Slaven and H.G. Nelson, we are being constantly told that too much football is never enough, are even the slavishly devoted viewers of AFL-obsessed Melbourne beginning to demonstrate the first signs of football fatigue?

If McGuire and others lament the lack of drama on the nights when there is a genuinely big story to tell, perhaps some are being turned off  because of the ludicrous hyperbole that now transforms a minor hamstring strain into a Shakespearean tragedy. Clearly, some stories built on  ‘‘dramatising’’ football serve only to provide the necessary fodder for a now voracious AFL media. At the same time, so mind-numbingly repetitious has the coverage of football’s ‘‘major events’’ become that, by Friday night, a movie can seem a soothing alternative. As discussed here frequently, Seven and Ten’s coverage is not perfect but I doubt their production values alone account for the decline in viewers. Maybe the real problem is that the now vast football media is killing its golden goose.

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/when-too-much-football-is-enough-20100728-10vju.html

[Penelope]

I get the strong impression Channel Nine want to turn footy into a soap opera. 

Don't they understand that when most football supporters sit down to watch a game they want quality coverage of a good game of footy, not "drama & storyline"?

As for strong journalism?  Does it exist within the television medium? ACA? 
Bozos!

[wayne]

All the Saints games they show are enough to make anyone turn off.

[mightytiges]

LOL wayne  .

St Kilda and Essendon are shockers for Friday night and seem to have so many of them. A double whammy this Friday night with them playing each other  

As for strong journalism?  Does it exist within the television medium? ACA? 
Bozos!

LOL at wishfully thinking about strong journalism when you've got grubs like Hutchy, Barrett, Caro and co. as footy journos  .

[Ox]

Strong journalism = Daniel Ellsberg

Channel nine journalism = obsessed stalkers and under-qualified,former players.