SBS planning to scrap football in shock programming upheaval
March 18, 2015 - 11:00PM
Sebastian Hassett
The spiritual home of football on Australian television, SBS, is in advanced plans to cut ties with the sport as part of a dramatic programming overhaul.
While the decision has not been finalised, Fairfax Media understand the network's content division recently concluded that SBS's 35-year relationship with football among Australian television's most iconic should be scaled back dramatically.
The government broadcaster has the rights to show the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA Champions League and one A-League match on free-to-air television each Friday night.
Tentative discussions have been held with other free-to-air broadcasters about offloading their A-League commitments for the next two seasons. SBS and Fox Sports signed a four-year, $160 million agreement to share the rights until 2017. On Wednesday Channel 7 indicated they would be interested in televising Socceroos matches when the current agreement with SBS and Fox Sports runs out in 2017.
However, in what may be seen as a significant step backwards for the game, no broadcaster is likely to show the Friday night match on their primary channel, instead shuffling the match to their digital off-shoots.
After gaining the free-to-air rights to show A-League matches from 2013, SBS surprisingly opted to initially show live games only on SBS 2.
Despite an upgrade to the primary channel this season, the residual impact of the original decision remained, with ratings hovering either side of 100,000 viewers nationally.
The network has also been frustrated by a lack of access to premium games, with primary broadcaster Fox Sports requesting the FFA schedule big matches like most derbies and traditional clashes on Saturday nights.
But perhaps most shocking is the thought that the next World Cup may not be on SBS, which has broadcast each tournament since 1990.
The rights are a highly prized asset and SBS could make a huge sum of money by on-selling the broadcast agreement for the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
While rival networks are still considering their options, they have all shown interest in broadcasting football during the past two years.
Fellow government broadcaster ABC took secondary rights to this year's Asian Cup and broadcast all of the Socceroos' matches live.
SBS is undergoing a major shift, triggered by the federal government's decision to cut funding to the ABC and SBS.
SBS is under significant pressure from Canberra to boost ratings and lose its "niche" perception in order to maintain future funding.
Chief content officer Helen Kellie and TV and online content director Marshall Heald are believed to have identified football as an expendable part of the programming schedule.
They recently presented their recommendations the "project shape" to the SBS board, who offered a tentative green light. The next few months will be critical in determining how deep the proposed cuts run.
Staff have been widely unimpressed at what they believe is a rapidly morphing culture, described by one member as "increasingly corporate" and "commercial-driven". An unpopular round of redundancies was recently undertaken on the advice of government-hired consultants.
Many inside the organisation believe the SBS company charter, which "sets out the principal functions of SBS and a number of duties it has to fulfil", is being blatantly ignored.
"There is a very fundamental change occurring at SBS. Those in charge at the network have made it clear to everyone they intend on taking a new path," one insider said. "They want to increase ratings by any means and appear prepared to stray from the charter, if necessary.
"If it wasn't for SBS, football would never have found a home on Australian television all those years ago. But those in charge of content have come in from outside and have dismissed its importance."
The rights to broadcast Champions League matches expires in two months and it is believed SBS will make no more than a token bid to secure the rights for the next three years.
Earlier this month, British broadcaster BT Sport paid £900 million (A$1.73 billion) for the next three years of European football's elite league.
In Australia, that leaves ESPN (who have part of the existing rights), Fox Sports and Al-Jazeera's beIN Sport to wrestle over SBS's Champions League share.
Channel Seven recently latched onto the visits of Manchester United, Liverpool and Juventus, while Channel Nine has bought the rights to showcase Tottenham Hotspur's clash with Sydney FC in May.
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/...ock-programming-upheaval-20150318-1m28og.html
.
