AFL footy is protected by anti-siphoning rules, so why must fans pay to watch some games?
The new seven-year, $4.5bn broadcast deal struck between the AFL, Channel Seven and Foxtel is about to kick in. The broadcasters are promising hours of new shows each week, hosted by big names and emerging talents. Seven has pledged new footy content every day, leveraging their new streaming rights which give fans access to Seven's matches via 7plus. No-one doubts there will be more content than any one fan could ever need. There is just one catch.
Seven will not screen any AFL matches on Saturdays, live or on delay, in Victoria and Tasmania, for the duration of the season. From round nine, residents in other states will get to see Saturday matches involving their local teams. Those in the game's traditional heartland will have to make do with VFL matches on Saturday nights in a new initiative pushed by Seven to soften the blow.
Ultimately, if Australians want to watch AFL footy on a Saturday, they will have to subscribe to Foxtel (or streaming services Kayo and Binge). The arrangements have been largely understood since the deal was announced in 2022, but on the eve of the season the reality for many has crystallised. A backlash has followed.
After Foxtel chief executive Patrick Delany suggested this week Australians now 'see as normal paying for content', communications minister Michelle Rowland was inclined to respond. 'While some Australians may choose to pay to watch sport, not everyone can afford to do so,' she said. 'Australia's anti-siphoning scheme promotes free access to televised coverage of iconic sporting events, including the AFL.'
The anti-siphoning arrangements were developed in the 1990s in response to the rise of subscription television, and a fear that pay TV providers with deep pockets could secure the rights to prominent sporting events and place them behind a paywall. Governments of both persuasions have supported the philosophy underpinning the law: access to culturally significant sporting events should not require additional payment.
Yet those inclined to burrow into the legislation will find an apparent contradiction. The list of protected events includes 'every match in the Australian Football League premiership, including the finals series'. Despite the government's best intentions, Rowland's comments highlighted there's only so much under anti-siphoning the government can do. 'Rights deals and scheduling decisions are ultimately a matter for the relevant sporting code and their media partners,' she said.
Jon Marquard, director of broadcast rights consulting firm Janez Media, said the scheme can be misunderstood. In a submission to the government's latest anti-siphoning review that concluded last year, he wrote: 'it merely operates to ensure that [free-to-air] TV broadcasters must be given a reasonable opportunity to acquire broadcast rights, and then if those rights are acquired, they may be, but do not have to be broadcast.'
For high-profile rights negotiations like the AFL or NRL, free-to-air networks have sought to outbid their peers even while knowing the ultimate outcome will more than likely involve them forgoing rights to screen some listed matches. They have done so as part of complex commercial agreements, out of respect for the wishes of Foxtel – which needs exclusive content to drive subscriptions – and the sporting organisation – which wants to extract the best outcome balancing both exposure and revenue.
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Indeed, the direction of the latest AFL rights negotiations prompted input by the government which feared a drift away from free-to-air coverage. In 2022, close to when the deal was struck, Rowland called for 'no diminution in the availability of AFL matches on free-to-air television under the new deal'. As Rowland noted in her comments this week, the anti-siphoning 'promotes free access', but it does not guarantee it.
'It basically adds complexity,' Marquard said. 'If you're a rights seller, it means that you are removing the normal level of competitive tension you would get, because everyone knows you need to get a certain predetermined outcome of something on free-to-air, and therefore your commercial return won't be the same,' he said.
NRL fans are watching the AFL experience knowingly, given high level men's rugby league on Saturday has been the domain of Foxtel for the best part of a decade. Channel Seven remains proud of its deal, highlighting how its viewers will see more Thursday night and Sunday night matches. Seven's head of AFL, Gary O'Keeffe, said it's a major investment. 'We know fans will love Seven's new era of football.' They will find out on the second Saturday in March.
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