Nine's plan to hijack the footy
* Nick Tabakoff and Michael Bodey
* March 02, 2007
THE Nine Network, which will not show a single AFL game this year, plans to become "football's pirate station" after signing Foxtel as the main sponsor of its three AFL programs.
Industry estimates put the value of the one-year deal - which will involve Nine's Footy Show, Sunday Morning Footy Show and a new Monday football program, Football Confidential - at more than $2 million.
It was initiated by senior PBL management, in conjunction with Nine boss Eddie McGuire, on Wednesday as the network moved to capitalise on the bitter dispute between the Seven and Ten networks and Foxtel.
Television industry sources said they believed it was the first principal sponsorship of a major free-to-air television program by Foxtel, which is 25 per cent owned by News Limited, publisher of The Australian.
The sponsorship announcement followed news earlier this week of a move by Seven and Ten to ban AFL advertising from Foxtel until further notice, after Foxtel attempted to run advertisements on the two networks promoting its live coverage of AFL games. Nine will broadcast the contentious Foxtel advertisements and will show Foxtel sponsor billboards at the beginning and end of each program. Mr McGuire told The Australian last night: "If people want to watch Collingwood versus the Western Bulldogs, it's silly to pretend it's not on pay-TV. It's like standing against the tide."
He said Nine intended to become "football's pirate station", as it had been prior to 2001. "In a lot of ways, Foxtel are the AFL broadcasting station, and we're the AFL station for news and the big names."
But the move yesterday led to a new round of hostilities from Seven. Ian Johnson, CEO of Seven in Melbourne, said: "I would have thought free-to-air television was something that should be protected as an industry and you wouldn't promote your competitors."
Simon Francis, Seven's director of corporate development, went further: "We do applaud Nine - as a half owner of Fox Sports and major shareholder in Foxtel - on investing advertising dollars in itself and becoming the free-to-air promotional arm of pay-television."
Industry sources saw the latest development as heralding a new period of hostilities between Seven and Ten, and Nine and Foxtel. "This is an explosive move, designed to be highly competitive," said prominent media buyer Harold Mitchell. "It's unlikely to bring any of the parties closer together for a long period of time."
The new Nine-Foxtel deal is understood to have been done within an hour on Wednesday morning, after calls by senior PBL executives to Foxtel boss Kim Williams. The Foxtel arrangement was a convenient way to fill a sponsorship hole for Nine. Mobile phone retailer Crazy John's was the major sponsor of The Footy Show last year, but its sponsorship arrangements with Nine were put on hold for the first half of 2007.
Nine officially launched its 2007 season AFL programming in Melbourne last night. Ex-Kangaroos premiership captain and former Foxtel identity Wayne Carey signed this week with Nine, joining other high-profile recent recruits including former Seven commentator Craig Hutchison and The Age's Caroline Wilson as new faces for the network's AFL programming.
