This past round saw criticism leveled at SBS for its supposed mistreatment of Friday night matches and this often leads one to think about where the A-League lies in its relationship with television networks, something which is vital to the survival of the league as a whole.
The current TV deal expires at the end of the 2016-17 season and is currently split between Fox Sports and SBS in the sense that the latter gets to show Friday night football live and the occasional other game provided it is negotiated with Fox Sports. This was the case last season which saw matches like the grand final air on free to air with a delay. With a new deal expected to be in place for the 2017-18 season, the FFA is rumored to be asking for a doubling of the current TV deal in terms of money, jumping from $40 million to $80 million, but there has been questions as to whether the league is worth it.
Firstly, the league has to be pulling in enough TV ratings to justify the high price tag. The opening round match between Adelaide United and Melbourne Victory which aired on SBS2 only pulled in 78,000 viewers, a significant drop from the 215,000 pulled in by the opening game of the 2014-15 season which saw Victory take on Western Sydney Wanderers, broadcast on SBS. However it is not only SBS which is struggling in the ratings. The opening round matches of Sydney FC against Melbourne City and Central Coast against Perth only drew 68,000 and 30,000 viewers respectively on Fox Sports.
These ratings are not attractive at all compared to the ratings that the AFL and NRL pull in. Looking at the most recent grand finals for each code, NRL leads the TV ratings, with a peak of 4.4 million people watching the 2015 final between North Queensland and Brisbane, while AFL pulled in 3.9 million for the 2015 final between West Coast and Hawthorn. Compare this to the A-League which only pulled in 650,000 viewers for the 2014-15 final between Sydney and Victory and it is clear that there is some catching up to do. However, it must be noted that the A-League is not looking for TV deals in the same vein as the one that the AFL and NRL have in place. The AFL recently signed a TV deal worth $418 million a season and the NRL recently put a free to air deal in place worth $185 million a season and these are both a far cry from the $80 million the FFA has put forward.
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One benefit both the AFL and NRL have over the A-League is a larger number of clubs to maximise games that will be aired and thus increase the value of the league to prospective networks. The NRL has 16 clubs and the AFL has 18, both of which is a significant number more than the A-League’s 10 clubs. This has been arguably the biggest issue that the FFA needs to solve before the new TV deal is locked in place. At only 10 teams, the A-League is getting three games a week less than the NRL, which will hurt its value as well as the competitiveness of the league in general. With rumors that the league will be expanded to a 12-team competition in time for the next broadcast deal, this is something the FFA needs to consider, as the A-League is quickly reaching its limit in regards to interest in a 10-team league.
At the moment, it looks like the A-League is stuck in a strange position. In order to maximise the TV deal, FFA need to have a league that is competitive while having well known stars and more teams in order to show more games on TV. But the FFA, as it stands, would be risking a significant amount to introduce two new sides without a significant TV deal in place. They also could not afford to bring in players like Alessandro Del Piero, who helped to boost the image of the league and increased its TV ratings as a result. With a significant TV deal, the league might be able to afford those two risks, but at the moment no network is going to shell out a large amount of money to provide that.
This current season is vital to what kind of broadcast deal the A-League will get. With the FFA rumored to be locking up the broadcast rights at the end of this season, the numbers will almost certainly come down to how well this season performs on networks. An unsuccessful season ratings and attendance wise will almost certainly result in either no increase or a slight increase in the value of the TV deal, but a season which shows growth in both attendance and TV ratings will see a healthy bump to the value of the deal and may even allow for more clubs to enter the league.
Unfortunately, the league has its work cut out for it. With the opening two rounds pulling in mediocre numbers of fans in both attendance and TV ratings, there is much work to be done by the FFA and networks in order to increase attendances and eyes on screens. The FFA have arguably put themselves in a corner this season, with a less than impressive advertising campaign and a general lack of excitement felt amongst the country for the return of the A-League. In such a vital season, this was never going to be a good idea, but now the FFA must do what it does best. In order to show why the league deserves a significant new TV deal, they must show why the underdogs are always worth backing.
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