Football Federation Australia CEO David Gallop cannot "boast his code's recently proclaimed TV deal is the richest in Australian sport," according to Roy Masters of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Nor has he achieved the aim of former FFA Chair Frank Lowy to "lift broadcasting rights" to A$80M ($57.6M) a year. But he can "claim FFA receives the highest dollar per viewer hour from Foxtel," compared to the other three football codes, together with Supercars. Nielson Sports prepared a graph which demonstrates that FFA earns A$2.80 ($2.02) per viewer hour from Foxtel, compared to A$2.59 ($1.87) for Supercars, A$2.45 ($1.77) for rugby union, A$2.14 ($1.54) for the National Rugby League and A$1.97 ($1.42) for the Australian Football League. The data "refers to the most recently signed rights fees" where FFA received A$57M ($41M) a year for six years, compared to the AFL's '17-22 deal, the NRL's '18-22 contract and the '15-20 deals of rugby union and Supercars. It also "refers only to the Foxtel proportion of the rights fees, ignoring free-to-air payments, such as Channel Seven's considerable investment in AFL and Nine's in NRL." The "previous FFA deal," often reported at A$40M a year, included a A$7M payment from SBS, A$5M from Asian rights and A$3M in contra. Gallop's claim that "on a like-for-like basis," he has doubled the previous deal is correct, considering the subscription TV component of the old deal was A$26M a year, while the new contract is A$57M. FFA's problem is that it does not "hold the rights to Socceroos matches for FIFA's World Cup." Inexplicably, those "are held by Lagardere Sports, formerly World Sports Group." Assuming FFA "lands an FTA network" that pays A$7M ($5M) annually for rights and therefore lifts TV fees to around A$64M ($46M), it "is still short" of the A$70M ($50.4M) FFA "needs to cover costs and ensure A-League owners are not forced to subsidise the club losses." The accumulated losses of the A-League owners since the competition's inception are approximately A$250M ($180M) (SMH, 12/22).
