Shorter quarters backlash

Return to 20 minutes next season, broadcasters demand

BROADCASTERS have told the AFL they want game lengths to remain the same.

The AFL has slashed quarters from 20 minutes to 16 minutes plus time-on this year, but Channel 7 and Foxtel are opposed to making it a permanent move.

Network negotiators want 20-minute quarters plus timeon enshrined in new TV-rights deals. Three-hour match productions, featuring quarters of about 28 or 29 minutes, are considered ideal to protect advertising revenue and maintain viewer interest.

A push by the league to reduce the halftime break from 20 minutes to 15 minutes has support. But talks over a reworked TV deal for this season and a proposed two-year extension with Seven and Foxtel have stalled.

The AFL stands to lose about $150 million in TV rights cash this year as a result of shortened game time and five fewer matches because of the coronavirus crisis.

The revised payment by broadcast partners in 2020 will be crucial in determining cash distributions to the 18 clubs, the extent of industry staffing culls and a new wages deal with the game’s 850 players.

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire, a member of the AFL’s hand-picked “war cabinet”, has led the charge for permanently shorter quarters to better suit the lifestyles of modern fans.

“We’re competing against movies. We’re competing against Netflix. We’re competing against concerts. We’re competing against people going to restaurants,” McGuire said last week.

But fellow “war cabinet” member and Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon is opposed to the plan.

“I love the game in its traditional length. We shouldn’t use this time to experiment excessively just for the sake of it. People are coping with enough change already,” Gordon said.

AFL Players’ Association president Patrick Dangerfield has warned a separate push to reduce club list sizes would almost certainly require the shortening of matches.

“At Geelong last year we used 39 players ... the requirements of a [normal] season — 22 home-and-away games, plus finals [and] the lengths of games — requires a significant list size,” Dangerfield said.

“But if you reduce list sizes, well how does that look if you are expecting players to still play 130-odd minutes with only lists of 30?

“It’s just improbable. It would be near impossible to do and to still provide the same level of quality in the play that we currently have.”

The AFL pockets an average of $417 million a year in TV rights as part of the bumper six-year, $2.5 billion deal with Channel 7, Foxtel and Telstra that expires at the end of 2022.

A new deal for 2020 is expected to be 50-75 per cent of the original agreement.

A new NRL TV rights deal between Channel 9 and Foxtel is imminent.