Recent announcements regarding the Australian Championship broadcast agreement confirm the broadcast product will comprise multiple components. SBS will broadcast all games on SBS on Demand, all Saturday games will be broadcast on SBS TV and the opening game will be broadcast on SBS Viceland. SBS will also produce 3-minute and 25-minute highlights of all games for SBS on Demand. Outside of the matchday content, SBS will also produce weekly multi-lingual podcasts and regular news features.

Accessible broadcasts changes club sponsorship value

The offering shows that audience access is a key feature of this deal. Maximising viewership will help clubs generate commercial sponsorship and potentially support attendances by increasing competition exposure. This algins well with the de-centralised competition ethos which sees clubs self-fund the majority of their operating costs.

For South this means that the club is better able to demonstrate value to sponsors as more people will be able to watch games, however it also means South needs to develop its sponsor network more thoughtfully. Often it’s not about how many people are watching, but rather who is watching, and there will now be a different market with eyes on the club.

Sponsors that benefit the most from national exposure are those with a national footprint. TRAK may be a good sponsor at the Victorian level when most people watching are locals form the Greek Community but a brand like Dodoni would do well to increase their presence at the club ahead of the competition noting their product is stocked nationally. This also offers a chance for South to elevate their network into a more corporate domain. There is now value in brands like Toyota or McDonalds having their logo on a South kit.

Accessible broadcasts puts pressure on matchday experience

Prioritising audience access though is not entirely a product of design and partially reflect the low broadcast value of the competition. As even larger competitions are struggling to meet budgeted subscription growth on paid services the Australian Championship was unlikely to pose a lucrative option for much of the media market.

This is evidenced by recent experiences on NPL.TV. The free streaming platform saw viewership of NPL competitions nosedive by virtue of its sign-up process alone, adding a paywall to that would likely have further impacted competition viewership. As YouTube streaming figures have shown this year, there is a significant market for lower tier Australian Football, but as of now, just not one that’s willing to pay for it.

A disadvantage of the lack of paywall though The other considerations with the free access though is the reduced value of the matchday experience. Where games are inaccessible to broadcast fans are more inclined to attend stadiums, but now that games are free to view there will be fans who stay in owing to cost, weather or laziness.

This means the club needs to up the value of its matchday experience by providing a product only accessibly live. We’ve touched on this before but this includes improving the atmosphere by being supportive of active support, providing entertainment off-pitch and improving the food and drink options. However the club needs to also consider the payment methods and ticketing offering. Pushing for pre-paid tickets and incentivising early sales to encourage group attendance help create momentum ahead of matchday.

Non-matchday broadcasts components are critical

An equally important feature of the broadcast agreement is non-matchday content that leverages the broader SBS network including radio and online as well as television. This parallels to Seven’s presentation of the AFL and Nine’s presentation of the NRL. Both of these broadcasters tap into their print, online and radio platforms to complement their televised products.

The SBS network also compares favourably to other football broadcasters who have lacked the same reach. Optus was forced to spend big money on written content, social media and podcast production. Optus was also forced into working with free to air partners to expand the reach of its Premier League and Women’s World Cup broadcasts. Similarly Network Ten has been greatly challenged by its lack of presences outside of streaming and television, and has been unable to cross-promote its products on radio or in print. Utilising the entire SBS network is a key opportunity for the Australian Competition, and early indications from press releases suggest this has been factored into the broadcast agreement.

This is all well and good for SBS and the competition but what does it mean for South? Well it’s generally a great opportunity for the club to plug into a broader existing reach. The club needs a media plan to work with SBS beyond matchday. This means making players available for interviews (for articles, podcasts and radio) identifying multi-lingual club officials for multi-lingual programming (not just Greek, but critically Greek). It also means learning how to work with national media again, in terms of providing facilities for news items and additional content.

More broadly non-matchday broadcast components are a chance for the club to send messages out to the community. We need to have a narrative ready to go. For a long time the public narrative has generally spruiked our latent fan base and history, generally when we were advocating for higher levels of football. I think this messaging needs to change.

South shouldn’t be begging for fans to come back, but rather should message the real, current, result agnostic reality of the club. History is great, let’s add our recent history. Latent fan bases and new fan bases will come if they see value and South’s values are generally very marketable. South is a place to love the game. South is open to all who want to be the best. South is aspirational and focused. South has never stopped. In the last twenty years we’ve helped develop Socceroos like Mitch Langerak, Head Coaches like Joe Montemurro, so many A-League players including Harrison Sawyer, magic moments like Mikkola’s last minute bicycle kick. South has never stopped. South will never stop. It’s in our DNA.

Impacts of the Broadcast

The new Broadcast Agreement is well considered and offers South heaps of upside as well as some new challenges. The short run up may not have done us many favours but at the very least the club needs to recognise the new landscape and adjust where we can. As the deal lasts two years the club should also keep in mind that any learnt lessons this year can be, and should be carried over!