The battle over AFL rights has taken a new turn, with sources claiming that AFL boss Gillon McLachlan, who spent last week courting Channel Ten owners in New York, telling CBS Viacom executives that the AFL is set to take over production of all games.
McLachlan has told interested parties that the move to take production of games in house was one of the reasons why rights negotiations for the 2025 season have been moved up.
ChannelNews understands that Ten management in Australia who are keen to get the rights to AFL games, will bundle in Paramount + which is also owned by US media Company CBS into the deal.
PERTH, AUSTRALIA – SEPTEMBER 25: Christian Petracca of the Demons and Marcus Bontempelli of the Bulldogs in action during the 2021 Toyota AFL Grand Final match between the Melbourne Demons and the Western Bulldogs at Optus Stadium on September 25, 2021 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
The sticking point is whether the US parent Company whose stock is down to 26.58% over the past 12 months is prepared to take on over $2.5bn over five years to get both the free to air and streaming rights and whether they will get a return on investment with the AFL hoping that the streaming rights alone will generate $500M according to sources Vs $350M that Foxtel last paid the AFL.
Insiders are claiming that Jarrod Villani and Beverley McGarvey who met with Gillon McLachlan and AFL management in New York believe that an AFL deal will elevate the Ten network in Australia allowing them to compete “equally” alongside the Nine and Seven networks with the AFL delivering a winter sport that will attract eyeballs to the struggling network.
There is the real possibility that Paramount + will run advertising on Paramount + during games in an effort to recoup costs.
At a lunch time meeting in New York Paramount’s global boss Bob Bakish admitted to AFL management that he is keen to grown Paramount + in Australia.
Viacom CBS boss Bob Bakish at CES.
Bakish, claims the company has long made its presence and relationships around the world a priority and source of pride, even before Viacom’s 2019 merger with CBS Corp.
But with streaming services relying on big worldwide user bases to justify big content investments, global is now, more than ever, the focus for the company.
“We see a huge global opportunity in streaming, a much larger potential market than can be captured by linear TV and film alone,” Bakish recently claimed.
Currently CBS Viacom is producing an NCIS: Sydney, the first international version of the company’s hit franchise.
The decision as to whether Ten and CBS Viacom will bid for the free to air and streaming rights to AFL which is currently held by the Seven Network and Foxtel will come down to Raffaele Annecchino — whose new title is now president & CEO, international networks, studios and streaming at Paramount Global.
A long-time trusted executive for Bakish, Annecchino his role is to ensure a “global transformation” of the company to leverage its various businesses for the streaming age, however ChannelNews understands that that CBS Viacom are cautious about getting a return on investment in Australia with $2.5B seen as a “rich ask” for the network especially as Australia only has 25M+ population to recoup costs.
Currently the Ten Network only has the Australian Grand Prix and the Melbourne Cup both one day events, during the recent broadcast of the Australian Grand Prix Foxtel scored a bigger audience than the Ten Network who had the free to air rights.
They also have the rights to the struggling niche A-League with production described as “woeful” by observers.
The Australian newspaper claims that Paramount executives were last week also giving McLachlan the hard sell on the ability of the conglomerate’s international streaming platform, Paramount Plus, to showcase the AFL to a global audience.
It appears that McLachlan is keen to keep Paramount and others vying for the rights on their toes to ensure his last rights deal as AFL boss hits a record level. Paramount hasn’t been the only stop on Gil’s excellent American adventure, with the AFL boss also paying visits last week to Amazon and YouTube executives on the US west coast.
