A whole new ball game Kate Lahey
November 26, 2010 THE AFL is building its own media production company as it heads towards new digital and broadcast rights arrangements.
By the end of next year, the AFL plans to have about 60 people working in AFL media, producing editorials and videos for online and mobile platforms. Content for the AFL site is now provided by Media Giants, and hosted by Telstra BigPond. The AFL's deal with Telstra expires at the end of next year, when its television rights also come up for grabs.
The AFL's chief operating officer, Gill McLachlan, would not be drawn on the impact of the new broadcast negotiations on the online component but said the AFL would go beyond merely licensing content to making and owning it.
Advertisement: Story continues below ''It's almost certain we wouldn't be producing games for free-to-air or pay [television],'' he said. ''But we might be producing some packages that go online, we might be producing some stuff that goes on mobile, we might be producing some stuff that is not necessarily game coverage but it's producing content that actually gets picked up by our free-to-air or paid partners''.
The new approach would not necessarily exclude Telstra, Mr McLachlan said. ''We've got our own aspirations but we won't be going down any paths in isolation from Telstra and other partners.''
The AFL was also renegotiating with its print partner, Slattery Media, he said.
But, at an AFL conference on the Gold Coast last week, guest speakers, including Bryan Perez, general manager of the American National Basketball Association's NBA digital, raised the prospect of the AFL doing more, possibly even following the example of big American sporting codes by starting its own TV channel. The NBA jointly manages its digital businesses with Turner Broadcasting, including its online arm and a digital TV channel.
http://www.theage.com.au/business/a-whole-new-ball-game-20101125-1898c.html
