Why free-to-air television matters in the next media rights deal

Australians are obsessed with sport and through sport Australia has established itself in the world, separate itself from England and gained new business opportunities.

Back in November 2012, the Football Federation Australia (FFA) announced a four-year television deal worth $40 million per season, four-year deal, which expires at the end of June 2017, allowed Fox Sports to show all matches live. SBS has rights to show one Friday match live each week and the finals series on delay.

Last year, Football Federation Australia were confident they could secure a large increase in the value of the rights, potentially $80 million per year in the next broadcast rights deal. Furthermore, in March 2016, FFA released its strategic plan for 2016-19 with a sharp focus on audience growth and fan engagement in order to drive commercial revenue.

Therefore, David Gallop signed Tim Cahill as the Guest Marquee Player because Gallop believed Tim Cahill can bring fans to the stadium, improve Television ratings. On the weekend, Tim Cahill did just that! Cahill’s unbelievable goal from outside the box in his Melbourne City debut on Saturday night went viral on digital platforms and media around the world. This provided the A-League with much needed earned media in this extremely competitive football code industry. In addition, two rounds into the season, A-League crowds are already up 33% and television ratings are up 44%.

In the interest of audience growth and fan engagement, it is critical for our football games to be on “free to air” channel e.g. Channel 7. This will generate awareness and build attraction among non-football fans because sporting fans will be available to watch the football games on their television or mobile devices without a pay-tv subscription. Through the entertainment and unpredictability of the football games, it will create audience growth for the A-League. Sporting fans will enhance their attraction toward a certain team because of their team performance on-the-field or off-the-field. Furthermore, generate more fan engagement with the A-League club and their supporters since the game is more accessible.

In 2013, Network Ten paid $100 million for BBL Broadcasting rights over five years. Earlier this year, BBL crowned Australia’s best rating competition. Boasting a national average audience of 1.1 million viewers on Network Ten, the BBL has soared above the Australian Football League and National Rugby League, who average 804,000 and 887,600 per match on free-to-air television respectively. This number will decrease when the A-League is on free-to-air and is competing with BBL for viewers time and match attendance.

On 2 January 2016, the BBL single match attendance record was surpassed, with a crowd of 80,883 watching the Melbourne derbies between the Melbourne Stars and the Melbourne Renegades at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Is Melbourne the sporting capital of the world?

Melbourne has branded itself as the “sporting capital of the world”. Unfortunately, Melbourne is not the sporting capital of the world because Melbourne lacks big sport organisations like Real Madrid and Manchester United. Furthermore, Melbourne doesn’t have a global celebrity sports star such as Stephen Curry or Serena Williams. However, Melbourne is the best place to watch sports and is one of the best hosts in international sporting events. The most well known sporting events are the Australian open tennis and the Formula one Grand Prix.

Melbourne also invests in one-off sporting tournaments and events such as the ICC World Cup, Asian Cup, Liverpool vs Melbourne, UFC 193. Ronda Rousey vs Holly Holm and more. This clearly shows Melbournian have a strong passion for sporting events and through the purchase of these big international events, Melbourne is able to reinvent and market itself to the world. The aim of these investments is to increase tourism, boost the economy in Victoria and brand Melbourne on the world’s sporting stage. Throughout the Australian Open, Formula one Grand Prix and sporting events there were “Melbourne” signage everywhere: on and off the field. This is to remind the international viewers that the tournament is held in Melbourne and create top of mind awareness for Melbourne. This is to set up Melbourne as the city for international sports.

In 2013, the Melbourne Cricket Ground hosted a friendly football game between European giant Liverpool FC and A-League champion Melbourne Victory. Resulted in over 95,000 attended that were the biggest crowd Liverpool has ever played in front of. This clearly shows Melbourne can host international sporting events.

In 2015, Organised by TLA worldwide Bart Campbell, Melbourne hosted three football games between the three clubs that are in the top 20 richest clubs in the world. They were Manchester City, Roma and Real Madrid. The game between Manchester City vs Real Madrid was played in front of 99,382, which broke the MCG football record for attendance. This indicates that Melbourne is a great city to watch sport and do sports business.

Therefore, Melbourne is not yet the sporting capital of the world. Maybe one day… However, Melbourne is the world’s best city to do international sports business. Because of Melbourne’s ability to buy and host international sporting events. Melbourne is able to reinvent and market itself to the whole world simultaneously increase tourism, boost the economy in Victoria branding Melbourne.