1 Year Deal Possible: Demetriou

Hello fans:

First, a follow-up to Lisa's latest report. She mentioned the recent "Pledge" TV ads, which aired during the Wizard Cup, used the Welsh national anthem, Land of My Fathers, as background music.
The AFL chose the song because of how it related to sport and the brotherhood of sport.
In a coincidence, the Welsh rugby team is on a big winning streak in an international tournament, called the Six Nations Tournament, featuring teams from Wales, Ireland, England and Scotland (the "home unions") plus France and Italy. Last Saturday, Wales won the tournament undefeated for the first time since 1978 by beating Ireland, claiming the so-called "Grand Slam" (winning against all other teams in the competition).

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou has indicated the league may reduce the length of the next domestic TV rights deal, sabotaging plans by the Seven and Ten networks to grab the rights from Nine.
Speaking on Triple M before Thursday's season-opener between Brisbane Lions and St Kilda, Demetriou told Sam Newman (also of the Footy Show) that he was not happy with the two networks forming alliance, leaving the country's highest-rating network out in the cold. Demetriou said that the league was considering reducing the length of the new contract to as short as a year contract.
Earlier in the week, AFL chairman Ron Evans said that, while the previous deal was five years because it suited at the time, the duration of the next rights was yet to be determined. Evans said the league had the right to set the terms and conditions to best suit its needs.
Evans said delay was not provoked by the surprise announcement of a Seven-Ten alliance to bid for the rights, but determined by the changing technology.
This came after the revelation that the AFL is considering having its own TV station (as is the case with the NBA and the NFL) and its refusal to respond to Seven's request to open negotiations for the 2007-2011 broadcast rights (although the league has since denied it is involved in a stand-off with Seven).
After three hours of strategic talks on Monday, the AFL Commission has resolved that it is unwilling to deal with Seven while that network is suing the competition.
Seven boss David Leckie was believed to have written to the AFL the previous week pushing for the opening of broadcast talks. Ten is also willing to open negotiations for the next media rights agreement and will place an opening bid in conjunction with Seven. The AFL has refused to respond to either party.
The scheduled commission meeting covered a series of issues but reached the conclusion that it was unwilling to rush the settling of a new broadcast rights deal, despite pressure from both networks.
No official response to the stock exchange announcement has come from Telstra, Foxtel or Channel Nine, although Foxtel chief Kim Williams is understood to remain determined to play a significant part in the next media deal despite the fact neither Seven nor Ten has shown any interest in negotiating alongside the AFL's pay-TV arm.
But the AFL will continue to pressure Seven to settle its multi-million dollar legal action against the league, Nine, Ten, Telstra, and the National Rugby League, before the scheduled court date of July 18 this year, before opening negotiations.
AFL general manager of broadcasting Ben Buckley said the legal action needed to be resolved but he rejected suggestions of a stand-off between the league and its former long-time television broadcast partner.
Buckley said the AFL was considering the option of establishing its own pay TV channel to broadcast premiership matches, however it would involve lots of logistical and operational issues and commercial issues that needed to be assessed before the proposal was given the go-ahead.
Involvement with a station would allow the AFL to control the pay-TV component to its broadcast bundle and to potentially use it as leverage in its dealings with free-to-air networks.
It is understood key AFL officials, including Buckley and Gillon McLachlan, analysed the NFL-owned NFL Network pay-TV station while in the US for last month's Super Bowl.

Also during last week, Nine gave its strongest indication yet that it was prepared to walk away from broadcasting AFL matches, threatening to derail the league's plans for a massive financial boost from its free-to-air rights.
In a newspaper interview, Nine chief executive David Gyngell warned the AFL the market for the broadcast rights was in danger of falling apart.
In an article in The Australian Financial Review, Gyngell - who, like his boss Kerry Packer, is strongly entrenched in the rugby league culture and sits on the board of NRL club Sydney Roosters - said Nine needed to be convinced by the AFL there was still a role for the station in the negotiations, given the network's commitment to broadcast rugby league matches on Friday nights into Sydney and Brisbane.
Gyngell, son of the deceased Australian TV pioneer Bruce Gyngell, said he would be concerned that the AFL was finding it hard to get a proper market going for the sale of its TV rights.
Gyngell conceded that AFL coverage was expensive to produce and did not help Nine's bottom line even though it enhanced the network's image and reputation.
Nine already loses about $6 million a year on its coverage and its cost would rise without its current free-to-air partner Ten.
Neither Seven nor Ten was interpreting Gyngell's comments as a significant development in favour of the new alliance, regarding it instead as a negotiating tactic.
Nine's Eddie McGuire said he could not comment on speculation the network would pull out of bidding for the TV rights, but he said he was taken back by the criticism over his comments on the Footy Show last Thursday week, in which he warned that AFL and the clubs were at financial risk if Seven and Ten bought the rights at lower prices.

Tribute to Troy Broadbridge
Trisha Broadbridge will toss the coin before her husband, tsunami victim Troy, is honoured with a minute's silence at Saturday's MCG tribute match between Melbourne and Essendon.
Troy's parents Wayne and Pam Broadbridge will also appear at the match to commemorate the former Melbourne player, which coincides with round 1 of the AFL season.
Melbourne has flown the family from South Australia, to be guests at the Demons' Chairman's Lunch.
Before the match, both teams will take the field together in a show of solidarity and run through their banners simultaneously. 2005 balloons will be released, then a further 20, representing Broadbridge's number, to be released by his sisters Sarah and Jane and his brother Sam.
A ten-minute tribute to Troy will then be played on the MCG screens and telecast on Channel Ten.
It is ironic that Broadbridge played his first and last game against the Bombers.

That's all for now. See you soon.

Regards,