Live and loud: Eagles, Dockers fans get free-to-air win from AFL
by David PrestipinoWest Australian football fans will have something to cheer about finally when the AFL releases its television schedule for the quartet of rounds that restart season 2020.
As it stands, just one of the eight matches featuring West Coast and Fremantle in rounds two to five are slated to be televised live into Perth on free-to-air broadcaster Seven; the round three Eagles-Lions clash on Saturday night June 20.
"As per previous seasons, all matches involving WA-based teams are available on FTA (free-to-air) and a TV schedule will be released next week," an AFL spokesperson said on Friday.
But WAtoday understands from a source with knowledge of the fixtures that the vast majority of West Coast and Fremantle games in rounds two to five will be shown live on FTA television.
The Dockers said on Friday that WA viewers would be able to watch the club's next block of games in Queensland for free on a Channel 7 platform.
"The AFL has advised that, as per previous seasons when Fremantle games are not broadcast nationally on FTA TV, they will be shown in WA on a Channel 7 platform such as 7mate," a club spokesperson said.
Each AFL season there are usually three West Coast and three Fremantle games that are not televised live on host FTA broadcaster Channel 7.
With WA football fans still unable to attend matches, live FTA coverage of West Coast and Fremantle matches is more important than ever for fans, clubs and broadcasters.
Channel 7 is likely to also now incorporate faux crowd noises in its AFL broadcasts next month after the overwhelming success of Channel 9's live production of Thursday night's return of the NRL season.
AFL fixtures boss Travis Auld earlier this week said Fremantle, Gold Coast and St Kilda were snubbed from live FTA coverage in the revised schedule and would need to play "entertaining football over the opening weeks of the competition" to get their games off pay-TV broadcasters Kayo and Foxtel and onto Channel 7.
"That’s just the way it has turned out. If you look at the fixture we released at the beginning of the year, there is blocks where teams don’t have free-to-air games,” Auld told SEN radio earlier this week.
“That’s only a four-week block and there’s a lot of football to go. I think there’s an incentive this year more than ever for teams to play really competitive and exciting brands of football because we’ll reassess the fixture every couple of weeks."
The WA clubs agreed to relocate to a Gold Coast hub for at least four weeks and sacrifice home games at Optus Stadium, with no guarantee they would be compensated later in the reduced 17-game season, to help the AFL resume its COVID-hit season from round 2 on June 11.
The AFL earns an average of $417 million a year in TV rights as part of its six-year, $2.5 billion deal with Seven, Foxtel and Telstra, a deal that underpins the entire competition.
Perth viewers up 400 per cent for live NRL
Our thirst to watch live televised sport again was highlighted on Thursday night when the NRL returned to competition. The Brisbane-Parramatta fixture was the highest-rating regular season game nationally since the NRL's season-opener in 2016.
Even TV viewers in AFL-hungry Perth relished the return of free live sport, even if it was NRL, with the audience on Thursday night up more than 400 per cent on 2020's season opener.
TOP 5 REGULAR SEASON NRL GAMES SINCE 2016 (national metro):
- 674,000 – Eels v Broncos – Thursday Night NRL on 03/03/2016
- 619,000 – Broncos v Eels – Thursday Night NRL on 28/05/2020
- 579,000 – Broncos v Cowboys – Friday Night NRL on 25/03/2016
- 554,000 – Storm v Broncos – Thursday Night NRL on 16/03/2017
- 554,000 – Storm v Broncos – Friday Night NRL on 26/08/2016
PERTH NRL TV AUDIENCES:
Round 3, Thursday May 28 2020
Peak: 25,700
Average: 16,600
Round 1, Thursday March 12 2020
Peak: 7,700
Average: 3,900
Round 1, Thursday March 14th 2019
Peak: 15,000
Average: 11,400