Two issues that are at the heart of the future of footy in North America. One is the future of AFANA and the other the future of TV coverage.
As we plan the upgrade of the AFANA web site and look toward 2004, one issue that keeps coming back is how long we can continue to make our web site available for free to all visitors. It's been a point of pride with us that we have been able to develop this web site and provide the information we do for fans and do it without restricting the site only to members. How much longer we can continue to do that is open to question.
If our voluntary membership levels were higher, then there would be no question to be answered. However, such a small percentage of our visitors ever join and even fewer join at the $30 level and up we are able to pay the bills and not much more. Most visitors probably don't realize that we don't pay our writers and web staff anything beyond a few expenses here and there. We are able to compete with the big footy sites (all of them based in Australia with paid staff and / or links to major media) only due to the dedication of our staff.
Costs continue to rise and advertising really doesn't get us there. So, like most other web sites including almost all of our competition, we may soon be forced to restrict some of our content to members. At the very least we are going to raise membership rates in 2004 for the first time in many years. So when we ask you to support us, we are asking for survival money not cash for a Carribean vacation. The next time you read an article here or check the TV schedules think about it... are you supporting us or getting a free ride?
Our recent survey reaffirmed the desire of fans for live coverage and their apparently increasing willingness to pay for it. If that's correct, then it is only a matter of time before live pay per view Aussie rules coverage comes to US televisions. Most other sports, even minor ones, already are there including soccer, rugby, cricket, etc.
AFANA and some other promoters tried to sell pay per view coverage several times a few seasons ago. All of those efforts failed due to the unwillingness of fans to pay for it. Not one of the efforts ever had more than 100 homes and businesses signup for the coverage. Having mentioned our difficulties in raising funds to operate AFANA and it's web site, what confidence is there that fans in North America would step to the plate and buy live coverage?
I think prospects are better today but it would still be high risk. A season of one live match per week would likely be priced at $199 or more per subscriber. Even at that rate, the equivalent of at least 500 homes and businesses would have to sign up to make it work (one business equals about 10 homes and the rate is per home not per fan). The costs of the coverage include rights fees, satellite time and production costs, distribution costs which include fees to whichever company administers the pay per view (e.g. inDemand, DirecTV, etc.), plus some profit for the promoters.
So, US and Canadian fans tell us how you feel. Would you pay $199 for 25 live matches per year?
-Rob (contemplating where it's all going)
Posted by rkdesantos at October 12, 2003 01:14 PM
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25 matches? I guess that's assuming we're still getting the Grand Final live elsewhere...
Sure, I'd pay it (assuming the games were carried on DISH Network); that works out to about $4 a game which is entirely reasonable. It would be *easier* if it could be set up as, say, 4 $50 payments over the first 4 months of the season.
I don't know much about how PPV works on the administration end -- obviously you have to have your basic costs covered, but would it be possible for people to "impulse buy" a game -- at a higher per-game cost -- as well? It makes sense that you get a discount for buying the whole season, but it might be helpful for bringing in new fans if one could get just one game at $9.95 or whatever it was.
FWIW, I'm a currently paid member of AFANA at the $30 level, and plan to renew even though the price will be going up. (I admit, if I could figure out how to tell PayPal to renew me early, I'm enough of a cheapskate to do it. ;)
One thing I would point out -- and hopefully you've already taken this account in your pending re-design -- is that it's NOT immediately obvious how to FIND the information on how to subscribe on the current site. A large, obvious button near the top of the front page that leads directly to the membership signup info would be an excellent idea.
Right now, you have to either discover the membership info on the "AFANA Information" link, or scroll all the way to the bottom of the front page to have any hint that there *are* paid memberships.
Of course... as someone who is already a paid member, I have no particular objection if some of the content has to be restricted to members. I hope you can strike a good balance, leaving enough freely available to help bring in new fans, while also encouraging people to join as members to cover the costs.
George
Posted by: George Madison at October 12, 2003 11:55 PMI think we can probably assume that the Grand Final would be free to air on whatever network had the regular weekly coverage. It's way premature to speculate on how the package would be marketed. Certainly, a monthly payment might be an option. I'd like to see the ability to sell single matches but that would only happen AFTER enough season packages were sold to make it a go.
You can change your membership one of several ways. The direct way is to "cancel" your current membership. If you go to your PayPal account you should be able to do that. There is also a link at the bottom of our membership page to "cancel". Then simply resubscribe new. The other is that you can "modify" a membership. This is harder if all you want to do is change the expiration date as opposed to move to a higher level of membership.
We have a link to the membership info square in the middle of the home page just below the banners. It says "Join". That said, your suggestion to add a button or graphic somewhere is a good one. These sorts of issues will be fixed in the redesign but our major objective in redesigning the site is to make the content more accessible. One concern is that we have multiple reminders to join in every newsletter but that has not worked.
As for what to make "membership only" I am only all too aware of how important the split is. What seems most likely if we go that route is for the recent content to be free and all historical content to be paid and for past issues of newsletters, etc. to be paid.
Posted by: Rob de Santos at October 13, 2003 12:54 AM