Aussie Rules and Content Sales

The Australian Football League kicks off this week. Normally this wouldn't be the subject of this blog except a major brouhaha has broken out over the broadcast rights. Oz is an interesting market because it undoubtedly has the best technical coverage of sport and, arguably, Australia is the most sports loving nation in the world. No sport loved more than Aussie Rules! Australia also has its fair share of media barons in part because they have been protected by regulation, from foreign competition, but also because some of them are very good at it (e.g. Rupert Murdoch). Anyway back to the stoush over rights.  You can read about it at the article above but in short one network (10) did at deal with another (7) and, if you believe the press, has cut out another (9) unless it brings in the state own broadcasters (ABC, SBS). The reasoning being that 9 needs another network, to share coverage, as it also holds the rights to Australia's Rugby League coverage which is important in some regional markets (i.e. you can't broadcast both at once). Nine could, of course, walk away but the right sports' rights in the right market are the only real audience driver left to broadcasters.  Too many other options, platforms, and means of replication for other types of content such as news, movies, lifestyle, reality-tv ect. Another path open to Nine is to look for other partners and platforms. They could, for example, bring digital multichannelling back onto the agenda. Commercial stations, as opposed to the ABC and SBS, are not permitted by regulation to multichannel their digital platforms. Nine could outbid the others (it has deeper pockets) and try to change the rules (something it has successfully done in the past, e.g. domestic satellite system and cricket coverage). So why not have it all and an unbeatable package to put before advertisers! Another option is to look for a different type of partner. Given the rights under consideration are for 2007-2011, Telstra's broadband network will be much more extensive and ADSL-2 will enable higher speeds and be content hungry. And with a million Australians living overseas the foreign rights for live broadband distribution could also come into play this time around. Rex Hunt's Fat Lady is not ready to sing on this one yet!