‘No place in Australian Football’: A-League broadcaster Ten backs full investigation

This masthead revealed last week that A-League clubs were forced to contemplate the controversial $12 million sale of their grand final hosting rights partly due to a shortfall in broadcast income this season, after failing to hit benchmarks in the first year of their TV contract with Network 10.

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The APL’s contract with Network 10 was renegotiated earlier this year, which led to A-League Men’s matches being moved off the main channel to 10 Bold on Saturday nights, and all A-League Women’s games taken off their terrestrial channels entirely and placed on 10Play, their free streaming service.

Beverley McGarvey, Network 10’s co-vice president said in May that she “absolutely” wanted better ratings for A-League Men’s matches, which were averaging around 86,000 at the time, according to data from measurement provider Oz TAM.

Sources told this masthead that the APL was required by a clause in that contract to achieve a certain number of subscriptions for Paramount+, the paid streaming service, which launched last year in Australia and shows the majority of A-Leagues matches, but fell short of reaching the required target.

As a result, the APL received less money than anticipated from Network 10 this season, and distributions to the 12 clubs were lower as a result. The agreement between the APL and Destination NSW sparked fury among fans, players and stakeholders.

Almost every A-League club or chairman has now released a public statement, either disagreeing with the move to strip hosting rights for the grand finals away from the highest-ranking team or accepting it as a decision that had to be made for the greater good.

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