Streaming companies want to broadcast AFL as players seek huge pay rises

Talking points

• Two of the world’s biggest streaming companies are bidding for the right to broadcast AFL games.
• Interest from Amazon and Paramount coincides with the need to boost revenue to meet player salary costs.
• Thursday night football could become permanent, meaning this game could be sold in isolation.

Two of the world’s biggest streaming companies are bidding for the first time to broadcast AFL games, at the same time as the league requires significantly higher broadcast revenues to pay for the salary claims of male players and a near doubling in pay for the AFLW.

The Age can reveal that global streaming platforms Amazon and Paramount have both expressed interest in being part of the AFL’s broadcasting deal beyond 2024. Both companies have responded to a letter sent out by the AFL to gauge interest from prospective buyers.

Streaming giants Amazon and Paramount are in the frame for a new AFL broadcast deal.Credit:

It comes as the players are seeking more money, but fewer people are watching footy on the Seven Network, the free-to-air broadcaster. Channel Seven’s AFL ratings are down more than 18 per cent, compared to five years ago, as people turn to subscription TV and streaming.

Fox Footy’s numbers are also down 13 per cent, while Fox’s streaming service, Kayo, has gone from zero viewers in 2017 to an average 139,000 in the first month of the season.

Outgoing league chief executive Gillon McLachlan flagged in his resignation media conference last week that his two key remaining tasks were to negotiate the next broadcast deal and complete the players’ next collective bargaining agreement.

Sources inside the league say the two are linked by the requirement for more cash.

AFLW players have asked for a huge 107 per cent pay increase year-on-year for the upcoming season. While the AFL has not agreed to those terms, senior sources at both league headquarters and the players’ association believe a deal will be struck in the next week that could see the average women’s wage double for the upcoming season.

It means the highest-paid women’s player, before any Additional Services Agreement, will go from $37,000 to close to $70,000. The average wage will jump from under $28,000 to potentially more than $50,000. The women had offered to increase their total commitment in hours (excluding finals) from 338 to 611, but they were told by the AFL a significant increase in hours was unnecessary.

Each club will be able to spend between $50,000 and $100,000 except for the two highest-paid players on each list, which sits outside the Additional Services Agreement cap.

There is wide agreement within the league that AFLW players have been underpaid, but even so, male players have made it clear they would not volunteer to sacrifice any of their own, much higher pay to help fund the growth of the women’s game.

Under the current deal, the male players receive 28 per cent of the league’s revenue, and they have told the AFL the increase to female players’ salaries should be found from the other 72 per cent.

That flag in the ground has caused considerable internal friction. Several senior women’s players, when contacted by The Age this week, said they thought they had been ignored by their own players’ union for too long. The decision to begin pay negotiations in the AFLW grand final week was seen as a slap in the face.

“Imagine starting the men’s pay deal talks in grand final week in September,” one player said.

Meaningful contract conversations with the men are yet to take place, and it remains unclear whether they are seeking a pay increase from 2019, prior to COVID-19 hitting.

Outgoing league executive Gillon McLachlan.Credit:Chris Hopkins

Given so much of the AFL’s revenue comes from the broadcast rights, the potential introduction of a disruptor like Amazon, Paramount, Ten or even Nine (which owns this masthead) is of great value to the league.

Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, with a market capital of $US1.55 trillion, has purchased the rights to Thursday-night football in the NFL to be streamed on Amazon Prime. Industry sources have told The Age that if a company like Amazon was to involve itself in broadcasting football in Australia, it would follow a similar path to its purchase of one game a week in the NFL.

Australian streaming service Stan (owned by Nine) announced a broadcast deal in 2020 for rugby, which is worth $100 million over three years.

If the AFL could negotiate more five-day breaks with its players in the next contract negotiations, Thursday night football could become a permanent fixture beyond 2024, meaning this game could be sold in isolation.

Paramount is now owned by CBS Studios, who also took over the Ten Network in Australia. Paramount Plus in Australia entered the market for streaming live sport when it purchased the rights to soccer’s A-League last year.

Paramount’s affiliation with local TV network Ten would come as an added bonus to the AFL, who would have the flexibility to negotiate with a free-to-air channel.

In 2017, an average AFL game would see Seven out-rate Fox by more than half-a-million people. In 2022, that difference has nearly halved.

As revealed by The Age in 2019, the AFL sent a team to the US on a covert, fact-finding mission to visit the head offices of Amazon, Google and Facebook. In what will be seen as a major part of his legacy, McLachlan has been ahead of the curve in the digital space when it comes to broadcasting as compared to many other Australian sports.

The AFL would not comment on negotiations. Amazon and Paramount have been approached for comment.

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