Why Ten is taking a $200m punt on the struggling A-League

Five years ago, 61,880 people packed into what was then known as ANZ Stadium for an A-League Sydney derby. Almost five weeks ago, there was a crowd of just 990 at Melbourne’s AAMI Park for a Western United game.

Sure, it’s not an apples-for-apples comparison, and there has been a pandemic. But it’s as good an example as there is of where the A-League used to be, and how far it’s fallen. (So, too, the fact that many casual observers probably have no clue what a Western United even is.)

Network Ten’s Jarrod Villani and Beverley McGarvey with APL managing director and Sydney FC chief executive Danny Townsend at Bankwest Stadium on Wednesday.Credit: James Alcock

On face value, then, the A-League and W-League’s new five-year broadcasting deal with Network Ten and Paramount+ may not make a whole load of sense. But only if you view it through the lens of a traditional TV contract.

This is not that. Ten’s owners, ViacomCBS, are not just handing over a whopping $200 million to the Australian Professional Leagues - the newly-independent, club-run body that runs both competitions. They’ve actually bought into the APL, purchasing a small stake in the whole operation.

It means the words of ViacomCBS’s chief content officer and vice president in Australia and New Zealand, Beverley McGarvey, don’t feel as hollow as they might have.

“Fundamentally, we believe in it,” McGarvey told the Herald when asked why her network is investing so much into a struggling league.

Network Ten once made the Big Bash League sing - and is backing itself to use the same formula on the struggling A-League.Credit: Getty

Foxtel tried to make it work for 16 years – and there was a fleeting moment where it felt like they did in the middle of last decade, before the code tore itself apart, as only it can, with a trademark civil war.

“Of course there have been challenges in the past but to a degree, that makes it an amazing opportunity,” McGarvey continued. “We believe the time is right for the partnership. We actually like to get in at a stage in something where together we can make it bigger and better.

“That’s our ambition. This is a perfect sport to do that with.”

Ten’s key performance indicators will include the usual fare – ratings figures for the weekly Saturday night men’s and Sunday afternoon women’s matches on free-to-air, and the number of subscribers that will be driven to the soon-to-be-launched Paramount+ service for the rest of the games. But it’s now really in their own financial interest that the sleeping giant of Australian sport wakes up and doesn’t hit snooze again.

“We think it’s the right time for this game to really take a step forward ... We’d like to be part of that story.”

ViacomCBS executive vice president in Australia and New Zealand, Jarrod Villani

It should all be music to the ears of long-suffering A-League and W-League fans. Having for so long complained about the lack of advertising for the game, they have been promised a marketing blitz on the eve of the new season, which is likely to begin in late October pending final agreements from Football Australia and Ten. Suddenly, endless soccer crossovers with ratings hits like MasterChef and The Bachelor, and regular spots for players on The Project, are in play.

“We’re not going to make this kind of investment and not tell everybody,” McGarvey said.

But there is immense risk on both sides of this partnership. The potential downside for Ten is obvious: $200 million is a lot of money to spend on something that isn’t a sure thing.

They are, however, convinced that their target demographics are perfectly aligned with football’s: young, diverse, digital natives. They believe that with the right investment and presentation, and a redux of the old Big Bash League formula, they can return the A-League to its former glory and take the W-League to the next level as the 2023 Women’s World Cup draws nearer.

“People still refer to what Network Ten did with the Big Bash as developing that game. We very much hope to leave the same influence on the A-League and hopefully be long-term partners with it also,” Jarrod Villani, ViacomCBS’s other local executive vice president, said. “We think it’s the right time for this game to really take a step forward and announce its prominence in the Australian landscape. We’d like to be part of that story.“

The big challenge for the APL is they must now convince fans to migrate to an entirely new, relatively unknown streaming service. That won’t be easy. Research from Gemba last year showed that 72 per cent of Australians had maxed out what they were willing to spend on sport and entertainment platforms, and one in five people were actively looking to reduce their montly outlay.

Is domestic football enough to make them pay another $8.99 per month, even if they get a whole bunch of other US film and television content to go with it? Perhaps not enough on its own, although McGarvey admitted Paramount+ was interested in “lots more elements” of football, and declined to elaborate any further. That could mean the Socceroos and Matildas rights, as well as the 2023 Women’s World Cup, or even the suite of European leagues which will hit the market in the coming months.

The A-League itself has a lot of work to do, which APL managing director and Sydney FC chief Danny Townsend – who brokered the deal with Ten – freely admits. That work can now commence, and it’s pretty exciting: abandoned concepts like big-name marquees are back on the table, as well as targeting lesser-known stars from countries like India and Vietnam to stimulate migrant populations. Further expansion of the A-League and W-League will happen within the term of this new broadcasting deal, although timelines and processes have not yet been defined. Re-engagement with active and non-active fans alike is also a priority. There’s a long list of those.

“We all believe in the sport, that’s why we work in it,” Townsend said. “Part of that challenge has always been to convince others to believe, and when you’ve got a partner that comes to you and says, ‘I want to put your sport as the number one sport on our network’, that gives you a huge amount of confidence.

“You can’t fix this with one lever. You’ve got to move all the levers in the same direction. When you get that right, magic happens. We’re at that stage – we’ve got to reimagine the game.”

It’s all in front of Townsend, the clubs, the APL, and Ten, who are not afraid of talking a big game. It’s now time to deliver.

Sport newsletter

Sports news, results and expert commentary delivered straight to your inbox each weekday. Sign up here.