Diamond_Jim

Now that is a nice debating point and deserves a considered response. Cricket is facing such a question in a round about way with the Big bash. Should it keep it on Channel 10 where it rates well and the kids love it etc or should it give it to foxtel or even worse Optus for more dollars. Cricket in the UK (including test cricket) has been behind a paywall for around 10 years after cricket lobbied to be taken off the UK anti siphoning list.

Thanks SWYL ... I downloaded one from a third party that got me onto 774 but I also like my News radio occasionally so I will try Tunein

That is the total number of foxtel subscribers .... the number who sign up because of the AFL package would be far fewer. Total membership of all clubs is a tad under 1 million but that is often 2-3 persons per household. My figure of 1 million is reasonable but even at say 1.5 million the amounts are around the same. Remember under the internet package you are getting nothing but the AFL.... no movies.. no Game of Thrones etc etc As to advertising who would pay for a service with ads especially a lot of ads. Foxtel advertising revenue would not be that great. In many cases it's just promos for other shows. I agree banner advertising might get you a few dollars

but why .... please do not tell me that they are intending to sell their streaming rights a la the AFL overseas listening app.

The world of internet streaming is complicated. Just noticed that my ABC apps had disappeared from my phone. I downloaded new ones and cannot find the links to radio that used to be there. Just news in text form. Google ABC and find out that now their App has disabled radio streaming while overseas. I can understand that they need to do this for some content such as cricket etc but to completely shut off their app to overseas streaming is weird. Strangely enough I can still stream by going through web sites. This is from their FAQ page: I downloaded the App in Australia and when I am travelling overseas I can’t see all of the features Yes. Outside of Australia some features are limited. These include streaming content, weather, and notifications. Rest assured, as soon as you arrive back in Australia, your ABC App will restore full functionality.

Foxtel use AFL as a loss leader to sell their subscriptions. The sports package premium itself would go nowhere near what they pay for the rights. So that begs the question. In an internet world selling just the sports package what would we mugs pay? Hard to say to the last dollar but in simple terms the rights are now worth $418M per year. Let's assume there are 1 million people prepared to pay for an AFL subscription. At that fee we would need to each pay $418 per year plus a share of production costs. As you can see if you only took foxtel for the six months of the AFL season you are getting line ball on what we would need to pay under an AFL internet model. Where I think we all have a very legitimate beef with Foxtel is that it is selling old school technology in the sense that its premium HD model only goes to one TV set etc. Foxtel Go is a much better product but it lacks HD and a lot of the other bells and whistles that we have come to expect. For the sake of my argument I have ignored what the FTA network contributes to the rights deal as increasingly they will desert the field as the rights prices increase.

Interesting about all the "depth comments". Much the same was said at this time last year and yet when the injuries hit our depth was shown to be lacking. Brayshaw and Frost are a cut above the VFL and rightly challenge for inclusion as does Pederson but the rest of our fringe players are yet to show that they can play at AFL level. When the likes of JKH, Maynard, White etc were included last year they failed to impress. Perhaps 2018 will be different.

Thanks Earl .... you are really filling me with dread but I like the honesty. I like going to VFL games ... went to about five last year but have never ventured out to Casey. Those bacon and egg rolls do sound good though

Not one for conspiracy theories but I would like to know more about this medical report. Really is time for independent medico reports perhaps.

what can one say .... hope it gets some media attention because that was soft

Would like to see this list down to 2 or 3 players. Add Mckenna and Jetta and you have 10 players ... around 25% of the list. They are in the main minor but if we are to succeed this year the injury list is a KPI in itself. In theory it could be down to VdB, Smith, McKenna and Viney by JLT 2. That would be great.

Life is much easier when we stuff up like we usually do. The tension that goes with success is something we rarely have to deal with as MFC supporters.

The hardest games on paper before the bye are Geelong, Adelaide and Richmond. In each of those we go in with an even chance. The first 11 games will probably determine our season . Turn 5-6 and it is over. On the other hand turn at 9-2 we can start to seriously worry. My concern is that we rarely have easy wins. A combination perhaps of inadequate forward line and leaking easy goals over the back. I have a feeling we may just get our forward structure right this year and as to the other .. who knows. Of course I have often been known to be wrong when it comes to the MFC.

such confidence OD. I, of course have us winning every game up to the bye. Have not looked beyond that as yet.

Hi I was thinking of heading out to Casey for JLT 2. Have never been to the ground before but I have heard various stories about car park problems etc. Also what are the viewing areas like. Assuming a crowd of say 10,000 and it being a night game I am interested in comments by the regulars about logistics etc. At least we should not have the winter wind/fog issue. Cheers

If we had beaten North and had done the job against Collingwood in round 23 we would have been equal on points with GWS who finished 4th last year. In that sense a top 4 finish is no pipe dream. Winning the big one requires luck ... something we haven't had lots of for around 50 years. I live in hope !!

Choice of an ISP is very dependent upon your location and of course as to whether you have NBN and what type of NBN etc etc. There is a wonderful forum called Whirlpool that has an enormous section on the choice of ISP's. If you have NBN make sure you select an ISP that has a good ratio of (forget what it is called but for the sake of discussion lets call them NBN lines) to users. There is one they recommend highly on Whirlpool in contrast to say Dodo that has a bad reputation in this area. If you would like post some details of your set up ... ADSL or NBN etc and I am sure that the technically minded on the forum will come along and offer some help. One other thing you need to bear in mind is wireless distribution within your house.

Reading on Bigfooty that the replays via the App are now at 420p quality whereas formerly they were at 720p Are the games themselves at that resolution... Not the greatest for watching on the big screen. I have cable TV in Asia and watch matches on Australia Plus. The quality of the normal programs is good standard but when it comes to AFL they are using high compression rates and watching on a 60 inch TV is not the best. I assume this is done to allow it to be sent through the international cables at low cost and almost live whereas normal programs are on three hour delay at least so there is much longer to send the product. The EPL etc on HD is at a fantastic level. Formula 1 is now using ultra cameras. Cannot understand also why Foxtel etc does not give viewing options.For example there is footage from overhead and behind the goals they could make available live.. not to mention different commentaries. I would like crowd noise with no commentary for example on many occasions. If they are going to charge top dollar they need to improve the product.

If Pederson is not in the 22 and we no longer have Jack W who is the relief ruck for the season? I assume it is Tom Mc Donald but I'm not sure

Crystal balling the sports and general media of the future fascinates me. The foxtel price point is interesting. One has to wonder if they reduced their internet service to say $10 a month if they would not increase their subscription rate five plus fold. Given their method of delivery the marginal cost of servicing increased customers would be very low. Their take up rate in Australia has always been abysmally low and without sport I suspect it would be close to zero. As many have mentioned it is only a matter of time before the various sports start directly marketing their coverage to consumers. Not sure if it would work in a small market like Oz. At present the AFL gets paid around $200 million a year for the rights. Assuming a million subscribers that would give a break even point of in excess of $200 per subscriber given production costs etc. It is also not hard to imagine that in the near future the internet rights to sport will exceed the traditional TV rights from a value viewpoint.

It certainly does work and the same goes for Netflix. Each provider does however have a limit on the number of devices and the number of switches you can do between devices. IIRC Foxtel Go is 4 devices and one switch per month. Strangely enough given that Murdoch is said to have skewered the NBN, Foxtel Go and the internet could end up being the biggest money spinner for Foxtel.

Did we not play Collingwood recently when they were massive underdogs and finals were on the line. Wow ... deja vu so quickly

That Tigers v Bombers score is an eye opener. Not as though Bombers weren't playing their near best team. PS: Apparently it is 33 degrees in Wangaratta so perhaps that is some excuse for the Bombers

Play him in JLT 2 and we'll see. At VFL level he is a wonderful player and today's performance obviously lost him no fans. Like others I think we may have a player on our hands (fingers crossed). If he can emulate say Gunston in his better years I will be over the moon. At VFL level he is an incredibly good pack mark.

100 more disposals than North. That excess almost equally shared between kicks and handballs. Awesome statistic. Won the clearances but room for improvement given our dominance. Obviously Norf were woeful but it is great to see us do a number on a team. Hopefully we can repeat it in the real season as big wins have been few and far between in the past.