Rugby Australia's renegotiation of their broadcasting rights is currently attracting plenty of attention in the media.
Firstly, the governing body turned down a renewal of rights with the incumbent rights holder Foxtel, instead opting to take the rights to a competitive tender process, in an assumed effort to try and garner more revenue from the content.
It has been reported that RA has attempted to court Optus into buying the rights, and RA are also reportedly keen on getting some content on free-to-air on a weekly basis, and so are engaging Channel 10 and Channel 7, while there are also anti-siphoning restrictions in place for the Wallabies games (as if those protections mean anything anymore).
Secondly, they took back control of the rights to the NSW Shute Sheild and Queensland Premier Rugby competitions, in an effort to gather up all their rights and take them to market in a single package.
However, this strategy has some potential flaws. Firstly, while Optus have expressed some interest in the RA rights, they have never paid for the production of sport, preferring instead to buy digital rights to content that is being produced by a traditional broadcast company, such as the EPL or World Cup. They may also be still smiting from the World Cup streaming debacle.
Foxtel are also looking to cut their spend on rights and production, while the ratings for the sport have been in a steady decline for about 10 years as well as the Folau issue. RA had the opportunity to renew rights with Foxtel in a deal that would have seen them maintain their current level of yearly revenue from the News Corp-based company.
However, RA's strategy of gathering up all of their rights and trying to sell them to a single bidder in a competitive tendering process also reminds me of that undertaken by the NHL when their rights came up for auction in Canada in 2013. At that time, CBC had held the free-to-air rights for 40-odd years, while Bell Canada/TSN had the subscription rights. Digital rights were split among a number of broadcasters.
However, the NHL bucked the CBC and Bell during negotiations, instead giving all rights exclusively to Rogers in what is known as a 'Gatekeeper' model of rights tendering. Rogers paid an incredible amount for the rights for 12 years, but they have exclusive rights across all platforms.
The story of the sale of the NHL rights in Canada at this time is expertly told in Hockey Fight in Canada by David Shoalts. Good read.
Is RA attempting their own Gatekeeper sale of rights to a single media organsiation, who will control all the right exclusively, but carry the burden of monetising those rights and can parcel them out to anyone they want?
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Participant Observations 18/2/20 - AFLW and the Freeview App
It's now been a month or so since cancelling my Kayo subscription, but in that time, I have not missed a game of AFLW, despite not all games being on free-to-air television where I live.
This has taken some manipulation of technology, but firstly, it should be pointed out that the AFLW has a different set of broadcasting rights to the AFL.
For example, while Foxtel and Channel 7 split the production of games in a way similar to the AFL (i.e., Foxtel producing about 4 games per round, and Channel 7 producing 3 games), and the coverage on free-to-air and subscription television is similar to the AFL (i.e., Foxtel broadcast all 7 games per round, while Channel 7 broadcast 3 to 4 games per round, including the games of each team into their state, such as all GWS Games being broadcast into NSW regardless of who produces it), the main difference is in the digital rights.
In the AFL, Telstra and Foxtel/Kayo share the mobile streaming rights, while the digital streaming rights are exclusively with Foxtel/Kayo.
However, in the AFLW, the AFL retains some control of the mobile and digital streaming rights, so that all games of AFLW are streamed onto the AFLW website and app. AFLW games can also be seen on the Foxtel/Kayo mobile and digital platforms, and on the Channel 7 app as well.
So I can watch all games of AFLW via the AFLW app or website for free.
Obviously, I watch any of the games that are shown on Channel 7 in NSW, as I've found the stream on the AFLW website is prone to crashing. Additionally, the AFLW App does not allow chromecasting to larger screens, limiting the viewing to mobile screens.
However, because I wanted to watch the games that were not being shown on free-to-air television in NSW, and because I didn't want to use the AFLW website or app to watch games, I began to look for ways to watch games of AFLW that did not use the AFLW website or app.
The Freeview App is an app created and developed by the free-to-air industry in Australia, to try and act as a simple point of access for all the free-to-air streaming platforms. It essentially acts as a one-stop-shop for all the free-to-air streaming platforms, rather than having to skip in and out of each Channel's streaming portal. It also features a TV guide, and other features such as program reminders. The app generates it's TV guide and viewing options based on the location service in the app, so that if it detects you are in NSW, the TV guide and viewing options in the app reflect the NSW television offerings.
However, the app can be tricked into thinking you are anywhere in Australia. When the app is first installed, it prompts you to enable the location service in the app, which will geo-locate you based on the GPS function of the device. However, if you don't allow the location service function, the app will instead ask you to enter your current postcode so that it can generate the relevant TV guide and viewing options.
As such, if there is a game of AFLW in Victoria, or SA, or WA that I want to watch, but is not being shown in NSW, I delete the app, download it again (effectively resetting the app), and then don't allow the location service function when prompted on start-up. Then when asked to enter my 'current' postcode, I simply choose one from the state where the game is taking place, or from a market where I know the game is being broadcast, and voila! Up comes the TV guide, and there is the game being shown on free-to-air television on the app.
What is even better about the Freeview app is that it allows Chromecasting, so the stream can be sent to my television. The signal is not as good as the SD free-to-air signal, but it is only marginally poorer in quality, with some minor flickering of the ball when it is travelling through the air. The Freeview app is also very stable, and I can only think of one or two instances where it has frozen or fallen over.
I originally discovered this 'flaw' in the app when I wanted to watch some VFL games at the end of the 2018 season that were only being shown in Victoria.
Unfortunately, I don't think this will continue when the AFL starts, because I don't think Channel 7 has the streaming rights to any AFL games. However, it has proven to be a great way to get every game of AFLW for free so far this year.
This has taken some manipulation of technology, but firstly, it should be pointed out that the AFLW has a different set of broadcasting rights to the AFL.
For example, while Foxtel and Channel 7 split the production of games in a way similar to the AFL (i.e., Foxtel producing about 4 games per round, and Channel 7 producing 3 games), and the coverage on free-to-air and subscription television is similar to the AFL (i.e., Foxtel broadcast all 7 games per round, while Channel 7 broadcast 3 to 4 games per round, including the games of each team into their state, such as all GWS Games being broadcast into NSW regardless of who produces it), the main difference is in the digital rights.
In the AFL, Telstra and Foxtel/Kayo share the mobile streaming rights, while the digital streaming rights are exclusively with Foxtel/Kayo.
However, in the AFLW, the AFL retains some control of the mobile and digital streaming rights, so that all games of AFLW are streamed onto the AFLW website and app. AFLW games can also be seen on the Foxtel/Kayo mobile and digital platforms, and on the Channel 7 app as well.
So I can watch all games of AFLW via the AFLW app or website for free.
Obviously, I watch any of the games that are shown on Channel 7 in NSW, as I've found the stream on the AFLW website is prone to crashing. Additionally, the AFLW App does not allow chromecasting to larger screens, limiting the viewing to mobile screens.
However, because I wanted to watch the games that were not being shown on free-to-air television in NSW, and because I didn't want to use the AFLW website or app to watch games, I began to look for ways to watch games of AFLW that did not use the AFLW website or app.
The Freeview App is an app created and developed by the free-to-air industry in Australia, to try and act as a simple point of access for all the free-to-air streaming platforms. It essentially acts as a one-stop-shop for all the free-to-air streaming platforms, rather than having to skip in and out of each Channel's streaming portal. It also features a TV guide, and other features such as program reminders. The app generates it's TV guide and viewing options based on the location service in the app, so that if it detects you are in NSW, the TV guide and viewing options in the app reflect the NSW television offerings.
However, the app can be tricked into thinking you are anywhere in Australia. When the app is first installed, it prompts you to enable the location service in the app, which will geo-locate you based on the GPS function of the device. However, if you don't allow the location service function, the app will instead ask you to enter your current postcode so that it can generate the relevant TV guide and viewing options.
As such, if there is a game of AFLW in Victoria, or SA, or WA that I want to watch, but is not being shown in NSW, I delete the app, download it again (effectively resetting the app), and then don't allow the location service function when prompted on start-up. Then when asked to enter my 'current' postcode, I simply choose one from the state where the game is taking place, or from a market where I know the game is being broadcast, and voila! Up comes the TV guide, and there is the game being shown on free-to-air television on the app.
What is even better about the Freeview app is that it allows Chromecasting, so the stream can be sent to my television. The signal is not as good as the SD free-to-air signal, but it is only marginally poorer in quality, with some minor flickering of the ball when it is travelling through the air. The Freeview app is also very stable, and I can only think of one or two instances where it has frozen or fallen over.
I originally discovered this 'flaw' in the app when I wanted to watch some VFL games at the end of the 2018 season that were only being shown in Victoria.
Unfortunately, I don't think this will continue when the AFL starts, because I don't think Channel 7 has the streaming rights to any AFL games. However, it has proven to be a great way to get every game of AFLW for free so far this year.
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