Pay TV Deal completed - to be announced Monday...?

**Damien** · 21st October 2006, 08:38 PM

According to 3AW 7, 10 and Foxtel have come to an agreement to cover AFL from next season.

Foxtel/Optus/Austar via Fox Sports 3 - 4 live games (Sat Arvo, Sat Night, Sunday arvo, Sunday Twilight), plus all replays. They will also have Friday night Live into QLD and NSW.
7 - Friday Night and Sunday afternoon
10 - Saturday Afternoon/Saturday Night.

Finals shared between 7 and 10, Grand Finals alternating.

Foxtel are reported to have paid $55 million for the 4 games (the same as they were going to pay Nine), leaving 7/10 a bill of around 40 million a year each plus contra which Foxtel will also share.

Glad I held off cancelling Foxtel! I am really excited they have two Sunday games, means for the first time ever, Sydneysiders have access to live coverage of all three Sunday games. First time ever.

**Mike_B** · 21st October 2006, 09:06 PM

If this is the case that's great news. Now to see what programs from Fox Footy will survive into next year as well.

**Layby** · 22nd October 2006, 12:28 AM

Wow what a huge suprise.

So Fox get to ditch their expensive Footy only channel, plus they negotiate a better deal than that they had with 9/10

They must be sooo upset

**swantastic** · 22nd October 2006, 09:15 PM

Originally posted by Damien
Glad I held off cancelling Foxtel!

I was never going to cancel Foxtel even with out Fox Footy,because i love my sport to much.Overseas cricket,Premier League,Motor Cross...etc etc.But by the sounds of it a lot of people might have jumped the gun a bit to bin it.

***goswannie14*** · 22nd October 2006, 10:50 PM

Another kick in the guts for those of us who can't afford Foxtel.

**robbieando** · 22nd October 2006, 11:16 PM

This is "I believe" good news for all concerned, from those of us who watch football to the AFL itself to even the networks concerned. Best of all is that all 3 networks are paying amounts that they believe they can make money on (ie. advertising, people picking up the service that kind of thing) and will go into the next rights period in 2011 not looking to drive the price down which was feared if Foxtel was kept out of this deal for any length of time or didn't pay up what was expected by 7 or 10. So that can only be good for the AFL and the clubs in 2011 at the very least.

Sure the amount of games on FTA TV drops from 5 to 4 in the Aussie Rules heartland states. But I doubt this will have that much effect because what are we really missing out on here?? A cut down "highlights" package from Channel 9 that bearly was 90 minutes long. Not missing much here. In anycase a major reason why Channel 7 and 10 were more than likely willing to give up that extra Sunday game to Foxtel was because a) it meant extra money from Foxtel which they wouldn't have to find themselves b) allows 7 a big enough gap in its Sunday afternoon programming to fit in its coverage of the V8 Supercars which they also have to show starting as of next year (and thus now can do so from 4pm) and of course c) 7 again don't have to move their 6pm news to fit around the twlight game.

NSW and Queensland will get Friday's Match LIVE on either MainEvent or FS3 (Depending on what Foxtel do with state by state channelling, but I think they'll play it safe and go with MainEvent like they did during the finals this year) at 7.30pm before those of us in the heartland states will on FTA and will again get it on Channel 7 at 10.30pm (which I believe is an improvement on the time Channel 9 has given you lot over the past 5 years).

Fox Footy was always going to close and I think Foxtel dragged their feet on this deal to make sure of it and to be able to blame 7 and 10 to boot. Really Fox Footy as nice as it was to have, it involved alot of padding to keep running 24/7 and still it LOST Foxtel money. On FS3, they can make money on the AFL because they have less running costs involved. Win-win for Foxtel I guess. As for programming from FoxFooty to jump across to FS3, rule out WLF right away, they won't give that a daily timeslot (thought the concept could be possible on FSN but with other sports getting a run as well). Expect On the Couch, Fox League Team and The Winners to be back and don't rule out Saturday Central making a return for both days FS3 shows matches but this time with only a 1hr lead in not a 2hr (sometimes 4).

**Jeffers1984** · 23rd October 2006, 10:42 AM

Sexcellent News

**giant** · 23rd October 2006, 11:08 AM

Great news if it's true - the Friday/Saturday night live games in particular will be a huge bonus.

**hammo** · 23rd October 2006, 11:21 AM

If true this is a great result for AFL fans in NSW.

Accessable live football in Friday night is something I've been waiting a lifetime for and Fox Sports is clearly very handy for me being a subscriber.

It will be interesting to see how the scheduling goes. If only one Sunday game is to be on FTA, does that mean the Swans home match will be at 2pm or still the early start?

**Triple B** · 23rd October 2006, 12:19 PM

Certainly seems that Swans games will be at 2pm if that scenario eventuates.

Let's hope that the Friday night games in Sydney/Bris are on Fox3. If on Main Event, which seems likely, we will get the 7/10 feed with all the ads after every goal. **** I hate those ads when you're desperate to see a replay.

**hammo** · 23rd October 2006, 12:24 PM

Originally posted by BBB
Certainly seems that Swans games will be at 2pm if that scenario eventuates.

Let's hope that the Friday night games in Sydney/Bris are on Fox3. If on Main Event, which seems likely, we will get the 7/10 feed with all the ads after every goal. **** I hate those ads when you're desperate to see a replay.

Also it makes it easier to get pubs to switch the screens to Fox 3 than main event.

The finals were still a blackout at most of the pubs I was this year despite being "live" on foxtel.