Author Topic: $700 million TV offer from Seven-Ten bid  (Read 26485 times)

Offline one-eyed

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Foxtel sweetens pot for AFL deal by extra $10m
« Reply #120 on: January 20, 2007, 02:38:45 AM »
This could still linger till the second week of February  ::)

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Foxtel sweetens pot for AFL deal by extra $10m
Michael Sainsbury
The Australian
January 20, 2007

A DEAL to show four AFL matches a week on pay-TV has edged closer, with Foxtel putting as much as $10million extra in advertising and promotions on the table during resumed talks with networks Seven and Ten.
The free-to-air stations rejected a bid from Foxtel in late December, which included $5million from regional pay-TV group Austar, to screen four games a week.

But the latest offer from Foxtel, which totals about $60 million in cash and contra, as well as a $10 million contribution to production costs, is understood to have resuscitated almost year-long talks. Contra is largely on-air and other advertising and promotions of AFL broadcasts.

"A deal is closer than it has ever been," a source familiar with the talks said.

Under Seven and Ten's $780million contract with the AFL, all games, eight each weekend, must be screened live - a sure-fire winner in the southern states but a ratings disaster in league-friendly NSW, ACT and Queensland.

The answer is seen to lie in selling four games a week to Foxtel, allowing the free-to-air networks to broadcast big-rating shows to compete with Nine's coverage of rugby league.

If a deal with Foxtel cannot be struck, Seven and Ten may be forced to screen four AFL games each, playing havoc with their programming schedules. On Saturdays, Seven and Ten would be forced to go head-to-head with live football in the afternoons and evenings. This would split the audience, and is causing scheduling tensions between the partners over who should carry games that will be ratings losers in some markets.

Seven is understood to be working on a fallback position in which games would be broadcast on a combination of SBS and community station Channel 31.

For Foxtel, which is 25 per cent owned by The Australian's publisher News Limited, it would leave a huge hole in its winter sports schedule, potentially alienating subscribers.

But for Fox Sports, co-owned by News and James Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting Limited, it would mean a drop in advertising and subscription revenues in the southern states.

Foxtel, 25 per cent owned by PBL and 50 per cent owned by Telstra, has taken a tough line in negotiations.

The talks were launched after Seven and Ten beat rival Nine, also owned by PBL, by paying $780 million for a five-year deal to screen AFL matches.

The losing Nine bid included a deal with Foxtel worth between $45 million and $60 million for four games a week.

In 2001, a syndicate of Nine, Ten, Foxtel and Telstra seized the rights from Seven, which had held them with only a short interruption, for more than 20 years.

One observer suggested that Foxtel would want to strike a deal before the second week in February, the deadline for its program guide for March, when the season kicks off.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21087976-2722,00.html

Offline mightytiges

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Re: $700 million TV offer from Seven-Ten bid
« Reply #121 on: January 22, 2007, 04:00:41 AM »
Just on Channel 7 and the footy has anyone else seen the ads during the Tennis promoting the footy?

It is excellent!  :clapping

It involves having tennis players hitting footies around the tennis court – they super imposed footies where the actually tennis balls would be – it’s very impressive!

 :thumbsup


Finally saw it for the first time last night. Gets the thumbsup :thumbsup
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Offline one-eyed

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Re: $700 million TV offer from Seven-Ten bid
« Reply #122 on: January 31, 2007, 03:41:05 AM »
On SEN yesterday, Anthony Hudson wouldn't elaborate but reckons the issue will be resolved in the next 36 hours. Make of that what you will.

Offline Stephanie

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Re: $700 million TV offer from Seven-Ten bid
« Reply #123 on: January 31, 2007, 11:35:43 AM »
I hope so. I'm really quite sick of this whole saga  ::)
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Offline one-eyed

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Re: $700 million TV offer from Seven-Ten bid
« Reply #124 on: January 31, 2007, 05:18:58 PM »
More goss (from BB):

Steve Perkin from the Herald Sun said on SEN this morning that an announcement may be made before this weekend and that Fox 3 will probably take two games (would've thought it was four  ???).

Seven only want 2 games and have said so a few times and they are currently planning on doing only 2 having hired only 1 commentary team and only have 1 AFL OB truck on order.

Ten are now promoting their 2 games.

Offline one-eyed

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Pay TV strikes a deal on AFL (The Australian)
« Reply #125 on: February 01, 2007, 04:06:03 AM »
Pay TV strikes a deal on AFL
Mark Day
The Australian
February 01, 2007

AN end is in sight to the year-long tussle between pay-TV providers Foxtel and Austar and AFL rights holders the Seven and Ten networks. An announcement that Foxtel and Austar will show four live games each week is expected by the end of next week.

It is understood the parties have agreed on price, and all that remains before an announcement is some work to tidy up detailed and complex scheduling arrangements.

Both sides in the often acrimonious negotiations have come under mounting pressure in recent weeks to reach an agreement. The Ten network has been desperate to remove the overhang of substantial annual losses on its AFL contract from the information memorandum being circulated for its possible sale, and Foxtel has come under renewed pressure from the AFL not to desert the code it so enthusiastically adopted in 2001.

After 10 months of refusing to budge on its original offer of $45 million for four live games a week, Foxtel submitted an enhanced offer in December. This tipped in a $5 million extra contribution from regional pay-TV provider Austar, took over several million dollars worth of annual production costs, and offered $7.5 million in contra advertising.

Two weeks ago the Foxtel contra offer was increased to $10 million a year. This was seen as a way of satisfying the demands of Foxtel part-owner James Packer, in that Foxtel did not pay Seven more than it had offered to pay Nine in its bid for AFL rights.

Nine held AFL rights from 2001 to 2006, and bid $780 million - or $156 million a year - for the 2007 to 2011 rights. This included a Foxtel component of $45 million a year for four games, and a contra budget of $18 million a year.

Under a $20 million first and last rights option purchased by Seven in 1995, Seven was able to match the Nine offer and secure the rights on identical terms. But it had no agreement with Foxtel, which it was suing in the long-running C7 restrictive trades practices Federal Court case.

Under the Seven-Ten consortium's agreement with the AFL, it must show all eight games a week live on free-to-air TV if it failed to on-sell up to four games a week to pay-TV.

Seven demanded $60 million cash for the rights to four games, plus contra to take the total to $70 million a year. Its negotiating position was that it made greater economic sense to show all eight games a week, even though Seven and Ten would be programming against each other on Saturdays and Sundays, than to allow Foxtel access at bargain basement prices.

With the extra Austar money, plus the new contra offer, the Foxtel offer has reached Seven's demand. Seven and Ten now believe Foxtel and Austar's offer to shoulder $10 million a year in contra frees up enough air time for them to benefit from extra paid sales.

Seven is also absolved of a scheduling nightmare with AFL Friday night games. While these will give the network strength in the southern markets, it faced a rating disaster in the NRL markets of NSW, ACT and Queensland, where Nine will broadcast Friday night double-header matches.

Seven was negotiating with SBS and community station Channel 31 to offload the matches, but with Foxtel on board the scheduling problems disappear.

Observers believe Foxtel was under pressure to do a deal with the consortium. Austar was increasingly concerned that its subscribers would react strongly against the loss of AFL - a view shared by Foxtel co-owners News Limited (publisher of The Australian) and Telstra.

It is understood the AFL also told Foxtel that if it abandoned AFL, or sought to set a new, lower floor price for future rights, it would not be in a strong position to negotiate in 2010, when the next agreement will be on the table.

In 2010 there will be no first and last rights agreements in place, and pay-TV and free-to-air rights may be negotiated separately after a review of anti-siphoning laws due that year.

None of the parties involved in the negotiations would comment yesterday.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21149551-2722,00.html

Offline one-eyed

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Re: $700 million TV offer from Seven-Ten bid
« Reply #126 on: February 03, 2007, 05:20:06 AM »
The AFL are now back involved in this neverending saga  :juggle

League brokers talks
03 February 2007   Herald-Sun
Damian Barrett

HAVING left the networks to their own devices for 393 days, the AFL attempted to end its broadcasting saga yesterday when it hosted a high-powered gathering of TV heavyweights at its Melbourne headquarters.

The meeting, which included Kim Williams from Foxtel, Ian Johnson of Seven and David White of Ten, was chaired by AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou, with his No. 2 Gillon McLachlan also there.

It lasted three hours and was the first time since January 5 last year that the AFL had formally entered negotiations on its 2007-11 broadcast deals.

The networks ended yesterday's meeting amicably, with strong talk that an in-principle deal had been struck.

Clearly tired of the protracted talks between the free-to-air and pay-TV networks, the AFL is understood to have demanded resolution by the end of next week, and possibly as early as Monday.

Foxtel boss Williams said he was pleased with yesterday's meeting.

"Yes, it went well, thank you," Williams told the Herald Sun as he left AFL headquarters.

Asked if a deal with Seven and Ten was close, he said: "You never know."

Discussions at yesterday's AFL-chaired gathering centred on Foxtel broadcasting four of the eight weekly home-and-away matches -- two on Saturday and two Sunday, including exclusivity on the new Sunday twilight timeslot.

Those plans would see Seven broadcast games on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons; Ten on Saturday afternoons and Saturday nights.

Foxtel would also broadcast matches live or near-live into New South Wales and Queensland on Friday and Saturday nights, a key facet of the 2007-11 broadcasting contract.

The scheduling breakdown for the NAB Cup is unknown, but may be left to Seven and Ten.

For each year of the five-year TV deal, Foxtel is offering Seven and Ten $50 million cash, between $7 and $10 million contra and $12 million in production costs.

Seven and Ten paid $780 million for the 2007-11 AFL rights when they matched a Channel 9-Foxtel bid.

The AFL's decision to force all networks into the one room yesterday indicated its desperation in wanting the impasse resolved.

It had constantly, and as recently as two weeks ago, said it would not enter the negotiations, arguing its contract with Seven and Ten was watertight and that it was the free-to-air stations' responsibility to settle on all terms.

The NAB Cup begins on February 23, and the premiership season on March 30.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,21162488%255E19742,00.html

Offline WilliamPowell

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Re: $700 million TV offer from Seven-Ten bid
« Reply #127 on: February 03, 2007, 10:00:27 PM »
I was just watching the Ford ranger Domestic one game between SA & WA and one of the commentators, Ryan Campbell, when rabbitting on about Fox Sports content in 2007 said something like "NRL blah blah and now the AFL footy".

Darren Berry said the CEO would be rapted with that announcement - Kim "we don't need AFL footy" Williams probably choked on his lobster  :rollin

Oops  ;D
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from the song "Don't Walk Away" by Pat Benatar 1988 (Wide Awake In Dreamland)

Offline F0551L

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Re: $700 million TV offer from Seven-Ten bid
« Reply #128 on: February 03, 2007, 10:35:10 PM »
 yes   was talking to a bloke at work today whose bro inlaw is a cameraman with fox
 and he reckons they will actually resurect the AFL channel again for this season
and show the 4 live games and replays of every game 
 he wasnt sure about any other content for the channel   :-\
EAT EM ALIVE 2016 TIGERS


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Offline one-eyed

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Next footy TV rights deal worth $1 billion
« Reply #129 on: December 18, 2007, 05:49:48 AM »
The next TV rights deal in 2012 could be worth $1 billion over 5 years.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,22941238%255E19742,00.html

Offline Stripes

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Re: $700 million TV offer from Seven-Ten bid
« Reply #130 on: December 18, 2007, 03:11:32 PM »
Fantastic for the strength and future of the competition. The more interest and network rivalry the better for footy. Only one bidder equals little money for the AFL but simmering aggression and irrational competitiveness equals a huge pay load for everyone!  :thumbsup

I also believe with the inclusion of a 17th and more than likely an 18th team this will further assist increasing the value of the rights with the additional games and interest generated. Another reason for the 2011 timeline to coincide with the TV rights.

I find the prospect exciting for the competition and our club.

Stripes


Offline mightytiges

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Re: $700 million TV offer from Seven-Ten bid
« Reply #131 on: December 18, 2007, 11:02:32 PM »
Right about the time we rise to glory  ;D  :thumbsup  :pray
All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be - Pink Floyd