Thursday night football "will play a pivotal role" in the next Australian Football League broadcast deal with the league looking to fixture 12 Thursday night free-to-air games from '17, "throwing a strategic challenge to the football calendar," according to Caroline Wilson of THE AGE. The AFL "would go head-to-head for at least half of its home-and-away rounds on Thursdays" with the National Rugby League. AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan "held talks with media chiefs in Sydney this week with the prevailing view that Channel Nine is no longer a player in the battle for televised Australian rules football unless it negotiates a one-game agreement with another free-to-air network." The Nine NRL deal "is worth close to double the amount Channel Seven is currently paying the AFL." Channel Seven, which continues to push for a twilight grand final, is currently paying the AFL about A$90M ($66M) a year, "not including marketing and advertising money, with McLachlan and his team wanting a significant increase in the next agreement." Having televised Australian rules football for the best part of 50 years, Seven "remains the AFL's most likely major free-to-air broadcast partner." The current most likely scenario "would see Seven televise four games each week with permanent Friday and Saturday night slots as well as Sunday afternoon." Seven "would also continue to televise public holiday Monday games and Anzac Day" (THE AGE, 8/13).
'FAR FROM OVER': In Sydney, Darren Davidson wrote News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson said talks between pay-TV broadcaster Fox Sports and the NRL about a new TV rights deal are “far from over,” as it enters advanced negotiations to sell digital-education business Amplify. Thomson told analysts in general terms on a conference call, "Football rights are a contact sport themselves and the match for the NRL rights is probably about halftime." He added, "It's far from over." The NRL announced it had signed a A$925M ($680M) agreement with Nine Network. The current deal with Fox does not expire until the end of '17, but execs in media circles and media analysts "warned the NRL could struggle to push the price" out to A$1.7B ($1.2B) because Fox has lost two of its highest-rating exclusive timeslots -- Saturday and Monday nights (THE AUSTRALIAN, 8/13).
