I see that the u/18s game this week at Norwood Oval is being livestreamed. I think the recent game between SA and NT was also livestreamed. This is a great initiative, but I cant help but wonder if the u/18s carnival is being used as a trial to see whether livestreaming is
a) a viable alternative to ABC broadcasts of state league matches
b) a possibility for future AFL broadcasts
c) both of the above
This recent article also adds fuel to these possibilities
http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2012/05/26/331671_afl.html
Tassie eyes AFL media link
BRETT STUBBS | May 26, 2012 12.01am
AFL Tasmania is looking at tapping into the AFL's massive media department as a way of promoting the TSL and re-engaging with local footy fans.
The AFL's communications department, AFL Media, has recently been expanded significantly, with the sports governing body toying with the idea of possibly broadcasting its own games at the end of the current media rights deal.
AFL Tasmania chairman Dominic Baker and his chief executive Scott Wade were taken through AFL Media on Thursday before meeting AFL heavyweights chief executive Andrew Demetriou, broadcasting chief operation officer Gill McLachlan, game development manager Andrew Dillon and strategy and club support general manager Andrew Catterall.
The move comes after AFL Tasmania and last year's TSL broadcaster, the ABC, parted company at the start of this season, with no replacement.
"We want to do some work with them. It probably won't start to next year but maybe for the finals series," Baker said yesterday.
"They have got a great set-up there, it is fantastic studios, the whole works. It will still cost money, but ... do you pay the ABC $90,000 or do you spend half of that amount and keep it in the family?"
Baker said the TSL was not the only state league looking at AFL Media.
"Clearly the ABC are in discussions with every other state league as well and it would seem that they don't really want to be televising footy, so they are making it more and more difficult for every state league in every state," he said.
"As a group of state leagues we will be probably getting together and looking at the alternatives and whether we could use AFL Media as one of its own alternatives.
"It is pretty scant on detail at the moment but it is just getting an idea of what they are capable of at the moment, particularly website management and that kind of stuff."