Sky have a bunch of properties that are far more lucrative than the A-League. Lightbox would be trying to establish itself as a player in sports broadcasting. Sky have an incentive, but it's not as big as it would be for a provider that doesn't have any other sports properties.
I agree with that. Whenever I get to see A-League on Sky it always looks like some sort of an afterthought crammed in between wall to wall motor sport, rugby and golf. However, a new provider would probably find it difficult to bid for the rights against Sky TV (a new boy on the block would have to have deep pockets for a successful bid).
well that's just probably based on viewing numbers which recent discussions have shown are not great - plus your perception as a football fan that there should be more coverage.
I would say that if a new player picked up the A-League rights maybe initially they would have a massive appetite to see how much they could grow viewership but I think they would eventually realise there is not a lot of viewership growth. SKY can leverage their existing resources to try make it a better product and I think over time they have - it's now not delayed much if at all is one example - and all on the back of average viewership numbers
Obviously the way to get a much better profile for the A-League is to put it on free to air - but then is TVNZ or TV3 going to pay enough or value the rights enough for the FFA to get the money they want for it?
I don't think there is an easy answer to be honest as I don't think the viewer numbers in NZ are really big enough to force a radical change.