In what’s a massive coup for the sport and a prime example of what you can get done when you remove the needless hurdles, club owners are reportedly on the cusp of signing off on a deal that would see the A-League broadcast on free-to-air TV by the ABC, opening the league up to an enormous new TV audience and providing the first real positive broadcasting step for the league in some time.
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According to various reports, the deal would put the 5:15pm Saturday game on the ABC live and in primetime, simultaneously broadcasting the game with Fox Sports.
Previously, A-League games had been tucked away on Channel Ten’s multichannels and were promoted with minimal effort, despite a reasonable campaign of awareness prior to the season starting.
A proposed new deal with Ten, that would’ve seen two A-League games per week broadcast on the network’s main channel, was scuttled due to the looming merger between Ten’s parent company CBS and Viacom.
The new deal with the ABC is being spearheaded by the league’s club owners, who usurped control of the league from the FFA last month in a long-awaited and often-times ugly separation.
The deal isn’t signed off on just yet but reports assert there is a quiet confidence it’ll get done before the new season kicks off on October 11th.
Footy on the ABC. You absolutely, and believe me when I say this, love to see it.
