The Australian Football League (AFL) could be just weeks away from its goal of acquiring $1 billion for the next broadcast rights deal.
The current deal with the Seven Network, Ten Network and Fox Sports expires at the end of the 2011 season.
With new teams Gold Coast Suns and Greater Western Sydney Giants joining the expanded competition from 2012, the AFL looks set to reap the benefits with Seven, Nine, Ten and Fox Sports all likely to carve a slice of the broadcast pie.
3AW reported this morning that Fox Sports looks to be the big winner, with five matches per week. The subscription television broadcaster is set to win three matches on Saturday and two on Sundays. Fox Sports currently pays around $50 million a year for four matches per week.
Despite wanting all games to be broadcast around the country live, the AFL is likely to hand Seven the main Friday evening game. Seven is on the record as being against moving their top-rated Better Homes and Gardens from the 7:30pm timeslot.
The biggest loser appears to be Ten and its high-definition offshoot One. According to Caroline Wilson, Ten will only broadcast one game per round on Saturday evening.
Nine, eager to be back in the AFL states, is hoping to introduce Monday Night Football as a marquee event, similar to Fox Sports with its National Rugby League (NRL) Monday evening broadcast.
All free-to-air networks would be allowed to broadcast their games into non-AFL markets, including Sydney and Brisbane, using their digital multichannels such as 7mate, GO! or GEM.
The league's internet rights are also being sold, edging the full package towards the magical $1b mark.
"They're certainly going to get a healthy increase," one station boss told the Herald Sun yesterday.
http://www.mediaspy.org/report/2011/01/ ... ting-deal/
