Rupert Murdoch Takes Over The World Part 175

Whilst we're waiting for news of the boy Rooney's latest scan here's something from the Sydney Morning Herald that caught my eye - and why do I feel a sense of deja vu when I read it?

A leading Sydney academic has warned that Football Federation Australia's lucrative pay television deal was ill-advised and an opportunity lost, despite assurances from football's top echelon that the contract was necessary to ensure the sport's survival in Australia. David Rowe, a University of Western Sydney professor who is an expert in cultural studies, the media and sport, claims the seven-year, $120 million exclusive deal - guaranteeing coverage on Fox Sports of a range of Australian football, including A-League and local Socceroos matches - is against the national interest and should be investigated by Communications Minister Helen Coonan.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter entered the debate last week, saying he believed all Socceroos matches should be shown on free-to-air television. But Rowe believes FFA has missed an open goal by not keeping some A-League football on free-to-air TV.

"It was an ill-advised and short-term decision," he said. "It delivered a fairly substantial amount of money to a sport that's always been short of money. But it sacrificed the future of the sport. It was an extraordinarily short-sighted decision because at the very point that football should be taking off, it's going to reach only a small part of the potential audience. "Only about one in three Australians has pay television. The A-League needed to have a presence on free-to-air television, even one game a week, perhaps on SBS - even if they can't afford to pay that much - and then watch the rest on Foxtel. With pay TV you are trading visibility - the profile and reach - for revenue. Under Australian legislation, the minister is empowered to schedule any event in the national interest and I suggest Senator Coonan looks into this deal. She's been remarkably quiet about it. The Socceroos should be available for everyone to have access to on free-to-air television. It's part of the national culture. It's not the property of News Corporation."

Whether or not it was the right decision, the FFA's deal with Fox represents instant gratification for the code, which a couple of years ago was worth very little. "Until last year, we really had nothing to sell," FFA head of operations Matt Carroll said.

"We received some money for Socceroos matches and a small amount of money for the A-League. But we needed to prove ourselves. "We now have a competitive and attractive national league." Carroll says the governing body needed such a deal because the sport was "coming off a low base" and revenue was critical. "Specifically, this deal will enable us to provide $2 million grants to each of the A-League clubs, which is critical for those clubs to be able to grow," he said. "It will put money into the FFA to enable us to grow the game in other areas, particularly grassroots, and through the state federations. "[Pay TV] is accessed by more than 25 per cent of the population, particularly in the big cities. The ratings Foxtel was achieving from the A-League were better than we ever got on free-to-air TV. It's always a question - where to have our matches broadcast. We went to the market and the free-to-air channels, including SBS, had their opportunity, but no one could match the money offered by Foxtel. It's critical at this time in the game's renaissance in Australia that we have a secure source of revenue."

Asked whether, by signing an exclusive deal with Foxtel, the FFA had missed a chance to truly attract mainstream support for football, Carroll said: "Look at Super 12 and Super 14 rugby. It's been on pay TV since its inception and it's managed to be a reasonably mainstream sport.
"If we hadn't secured this broadcast deal it would have been very hard for us to stay alive."

However, Blatter questioned whether the right decision was made.

"It's a decision to take between money or exposure and I'm not so sure that the right decision has been taken, but it's not up to me to make this decision," he told The Sydney Morning Herald. "I will not interfere in governmental decisions, but when it comes to the national team, I would say, yes, the national team should be accessible to everybody."

Foxtel has the right to sell the football coverage, but it is unlikely to do so. Fox Sports marketing director Adam Oakes said the broadcaster's aim was to acquire good quality, exclusive properties. "The benefit from that for the sport is that they get a lot of money," Oakes said. "The benefit for us is that we hopefully get a property that people are passionate about and are prepared to pay for." Oakes believes coverage on Foxtel will not diminish opportunities for football to grow. "Football's a bit of a gamble for us," he said. "Given the popularity of the initial season and now the commitment from us, you can argue that it has increased the number of fans. There was an appetite for it previously, and they may have been following leagues overseas, but now there's a far more genuine form of the game in Australia.

"There's different views about football being on subscription TV, but the FFA's view and our view is that it's in the best interests of football."