The biggest TV rights deal in Australian sporting history is Gil McLachlan’s pièce de résistance and his parting gift to football.
A whopping $4.5 billion deal that secures every aspect of the game from the grassroots to the 19th team.
McLachlan will leave office later this year as the best deal maker the AFL ever had – it’s why he was entrusted with locking up the League’s most critical contract for nine years beyond his tenure.
There’s a scenario in which the next CEO never does a broadcast deal.
The magnitude of what was unveiled yesterday came against the typical backdrop of naysaying… completely ignoring history – the house, the AFL house, always wins.
Coverage of the negotiations suggested the League would fall short of the $500 million marker it was budgeting for, and that there was no serious option other than the incumbents.
But when the auction was held, The Australian reports Nine’s bid was well above $500 million a year and it might even have been prepared to jettison NRL.
And The Age has the Ten/Paramount bid at $6 billion over 10 years.
It helped secure $643 million a year from Seven and Foxtel to retain their rights.
The AFL didn’t need new tech or a third party and gave up virtually nothing.
It retains total control over the fixture and the timing of the Grand Final remains at the pleasure of the Commission.
The night Grand Final wasn’t the last great bargaining chip it was presumed to be.
The number of free-to-air games hasn’t been reduced despite the Henny Pennys in South Australia and Western Australia.
The AFL didn’t even have to carve out Thursday night as a permanent, marquee slot.
The alterations are almost cosmetic.
Thursday nights for the first 15 rounds on Channel 7.
Eight Super Saturdays at the start of the season on Fox and Kayo.
And a choice of commentary come 2025 with Fox to voice their own matches in line with what we know from cricket.
All the AFL really needed was the best opening to a finals round ever accompanied by the biggest ratings after the best home and away season this century.
Gil could just rub his thumb and fingers together and say to television executives you can quibble all you like, but you can’t live without it.
Show me the money.
Not that long ago, there were those lecturing that Peter V’Landys had schooled the AFL in the pandemic TV rights business.
Nope.
The gap between the AFL and the NRL on a yearly measure has stretched to nine figures.
It’s Gil McLachlan’s pièce de résistance, and it will lead to his last legacy piece.
The presidents can’t cry poor when the Tasmanian proposal is formally presented.
The game can afford its 19th license.
There’ll be no denying Gil when he brings it to the table not when the cheque he just landed is this big.