I think COVID has really shot the league in the leg. With people still haphazard about catching it, it’s put a lot of the ‘casuals’ off.
Next season, a good advertising drive nationwide should help too.
I think COVID has really shot the league in the leg. With people still haphazard about catching it, it’s put a lot of the ‘casuals’ off.
Next season, a good advertising drive nationwide should help too.
And an All-Star game!
Yeah I almost think any effort this season was a waste of time and money. I hope they’ve saved something up to (hopefully be able to) do it properly next season.
But I agree with those who are knocking KeepUp. I hope they realise that (maybe) it was worth trying but not worth persevering with at least in anything like its current incarnation.
We also have to accept that we are always going to be battling with NBL, Super Netball and the Rugby Union… we are, and always will be, behind the NRL, AFL, Big Bash
Test cricket (depending on the visitors) and Tennis will always have their annual spikes
Summer comp was also a major mistake.
Danny said at the time it was best for the fans and best for corporate dollars.
Well, if only 50 people are watching then the corporate dollars will be vanishing anyway.
BBL took a major hit this year too, they had terrible crowds and anecdotally people that I know who usually watch it didn’t really care about it, and that was WITH a lot of the games on FTA prime time channel 7. They got hammered hard by COVID and teams playing at different stadiums but BBL has been on a downtrend for a while.
@Duvee_Dave winter comp is never going to happen, a bigger pie in the sky dream than promo/relegation and when it’s 10 degrees with horrible crowds and pitches torn up by NRL there would be major regrets. I think winter comp would be the death knell for the A-League, it 100% must stay in the summer.
But I guess there are two questions - who and how? We’ve got a FTA partner who is putting one game on a main channel, for the first time in years. We aren’t getting more than that until the ratings start to come in (and even then probably not). None of the other FTA channels are going to come in for it so how are we supposed to get it in front of more eyeballs? The only thing I can think is paying to have it on TV (didn’t basketball do that here?), but without a broadcast partner we don’t have the money to do that.
IMO this is the best we’re gonna get. Paramount sucks for the moment, don’t get me wrong, but if it means we get a game a week with broader potential audiences in HD, while still getting a somewhat decent pay day for it, then I’m good with it.
Yeah that one is more of a long term goal, no doubt. And like I said, some of these things are more easily done than others.
That said, if the APL were ambitious, I think they could strive to, even within the term of the current deal, get the league to a point where 10 want to show more games on FTA.
That comes via one thing, ratings. If the content rates well, they will ask for more.
Is that true? Is the strategy to let it wither on the vine as long as we can and the only way the league gets thrown a bone, is if we manage to improve on our own, in the worst circumstances? I’m not an expert at media, but I don’t reckon you buy rights to a new product and then tell it has to prove itself.
I’m sure ratings play a part, but when ViacomCBS did this thing, the rhetoric was that this was their vector into shaping the sports media landscape in Australia. And that rhetoric was backed up by a significant capital investment, if my memory serves? So its also at least a bit about the strategic direction of 10 and ViacomCBS.
The story, as i remember it, was 10 was the network that built the BBL. Now they were going to apply those learnings to football and were confident of similar levels of success.
Obviously, I don’t know any of the details of the deal, who required what, timelines, any of that. I can just see what’s in front of me. But I distinctly remember things being promised, like magazine shows, highlights shows, and dang kids show about playing football. It was meant to be integrated at every level. As it stands, the clubs struggle to get viable video for highlights for their social media accounts…
Fast forward to round 14-18 of the league and it seems like they struggle just to get the bare minimum of showing the games live. So, going off what it looks like, at some point APL is going to have to start demanding they come to the party at bit more. We’re going to struggle if the only content being generated is 1 game a week on FTA, 4 more hidden away on a minor streaming service and a podcast.
But that’s not what’s happening, the current deal is for 1 primetime Saturday game, if you want the deal to change for the better, the ratings have to warrant it, that’s just a fact of life for FTA where there isn’t unlimited capacity like streaming services.
Nobody, especially me, said it had to be done by APL alone, you just assumed that, but simply showing more games on FTA isn’t going to move the needle/be viable. 10 and Paramount need to promote the content effectively.
What you describe in terms of what they SHOULD be doing isn’t wrong, but see again my point about your assumption. I’d also like to see more prominent promotion, but since I never watch FTA I have no idea whether they’re doing that.
After a cursory Google that anyone could’ve done, they have an ALM highlights show weekly.
I checked THIS and found the following text about a magazine-style show:
The deal guarantees one A-League match each week, on Saturday nights, will be broadcast live on Ten’s main channel for the duration of the agreement, preceded by a magazine-style discussion show
Whether the 30-40 minutes of preamble counts as a magazine-style discussion show is up for debate, but there’s no doubt they are showing more than just the single football game being shown for that evening. Many times, especially in the later years, they’d just switch over to the telecast five minutes before the start of a game. You can’t tell me that’s not at least an improvement somewhat.
I don’t see any evidence of the kids show, or it even being mentioned as a part of the deal apart from shabby mentioning it. Unless I’m missing something and it was mentioned somewhere. Please link if it was mentioned somewhere.
We’ve had some cross-promoting of the A-Leagues on Channel 10 that we wouldn’t have had previously. It’s pretty clear that not everything they’re doing is shit, even though there are a lot of things that are.
And I should mention I just had a look for the highlights show and it IS on TV.
On 10Bold, at 10:20pm on a Monday… On 10play the last episode I can find is from January.
All I’m saying is that I think the APL have the right to expect better - and they’re going to need it to be better. Soon. Its their responsibility.
The APL have a big role though.
Take tonight’s game, for example. 10pm on a Tuesday? Who are they expecting to watch this? Its set up (by the APL, I assume) to fail, imo.
I do agree on that front. They should be beyond the teething problem stage. Some aspects are simply not improving, though. Sometimes the quality of broadcast/stream seems to be no better than it was at the start of the season. Wrong graphics shown, scores disappearing from the screen. We have still no Paramount+ app on TV or consoles, as far as I can tell. Just a few things they really need to solve sooner rather than later.
If they put it on at 7:30pm AEDT, it would be 4:30pm in Perth, and we would probably be asking the same question about people in Perth. It’s a tricky one.
Not tricky at all, they should be catering to the Perth fans who’ve been gagging to see their team for months and we can all just suck it up.
The draw has been a shermozzle, so much of it Covid or weather related that I’m sure APL have done their best to work through, but then you get the odd complete balls up like them needlessly moving the Big Blue or the real fuckup in this weeks schedule which is:
Wed 16/03 - 7:35pm - Adelaide vs WSW
Sun 20/03 - 7:05pm - WSW vs Adelaide
It does kinda have the vibe that APL and broadcasters alike are just trying to fuck this season off and start afresh with the next one, it’s just detrimental after last season (best ever on-field) suffered the exact same fate when Fox kicked it to the curb.
Wait so you’re complaining that the Perth Glory home game has been set at a time that allows Perth Glory fans to go to a Perth Glory game?
I’m not personally complaining about it, but I was just suggesting we, the fans on the east coast, can’t have it both ways for once.
I think the elephant in the room is that like the BBL the A-League is made up of artificial teams.
Both hit the ground running as the next big thing, both started to fade as the gloss wore off.
Both are in a serious state because of the effects of covid.
The BBL has a solid established partner in traditional cricket that will ensure there will always be probably enough residual interest for it to survive.
The APL has the myth of the sleeping giant to support it which seems to be moron a permanent coma than asleep.
OK we have 7 of the original 8 teams that have managed to build a following that is rusted on and will ensure survival of the competition. Add Wellington to make 8.
Of the additional clubs that have been invented only WSW was a success and went to the FFA’s head. Every other add on has been a dud to varying degrees. All coming with lots of never to be delivered promises.
Nothing needs to be said about North Qld or Gold Coast. Heart was hopeless from the start and has only been saved by City Groups takeover. Western and Macarthur have not convinced me that they are the answer.
Any future expansion needs to come from existing clubs with an established tribal foundation and tradition as well as experience in being a football club.
I am not suggesting promotion relegation is the way to go, we are not far enough advanced to be ready for that yet.
No more additional, artificial, plastic clubs to inflate the league with more stocking fillers would be a good way forward.
The A-league has always tried to wear boots and clothes that are far to big for it.
Let’s have real clubs, playing in appropriately sized stadia, with good coverage. A few REAL Marquee players but no more pretend ones who bring nothing to the game. Much more encouragement for club’s to develop their own young talent.
Then let the league grow naturally to fill whatever size it may attain.