Paramount Australia is confident its A-League coverage, which is produced by a third-party production company that has entered administration, will go ahead Easter weekend.
The Australian Professional Leagues (APL), which runs Australia’s top tier of professional football – the A-League – is in deep discussion to find a new production partner after its current partner, Global Advance, entered administration.
B&T understands that talks with the NEP Australia – one of the largest sports production houses in the country – are at an advanced stage in spite of the APL only discovering Global Advance is not a viable operation this week.
Paramount Australia and Network Ten, which broadcasts the A-League, are confident football fans will not miss a game this weekend despite the short turnaround of the APL to find a new production partner.
A Paramount spokesperson said: “Paramount Australia has been informed that the APL’s third-party production facilities provider, Global Advance, has gone into administration. We are confident that this will not affect the coverage of the A-Leagues going forward, with football fans able to watch all the live action and excitement as scheduled”.
Sports production of the A-League is different from other sporting codes because it is handled by the sports administrator – the APL – rather than the host broadcaster.
Global Advance was set up in 2021 to broadcast A-League games, providing a third sports production company in Australia; NEP and Gravity have been the dominant players for years.
The APL’s partnership with Global Advance was an attempt to bring down costs, but have also exposed the viability of covering a code that doesn’t bring in the same TV revenue of rivals.
It is the latest blow for the APL, a club-run entity that took over running the A-Leagues from Football Australia in 2021.
Earlier this year, the sports body made redundant nearly half of its workforce to cut costs, while one franchise – Newcastle Jets – is without an owner.
Football continues to enjoy record numbers of registered players – more kids play soccer than any other sport in this country – and the Matildas and Socceroos regularly fill stadiums.
However, the men’s and women’s A-Leagues have struggled to attract bums on seats and eyeballs watching games on TV with attendances and ratings much lower than rival codes.
This latest blow will cause more pain for administrators, who one sports agency leader anonymously told B&T: “You probably couldn’t get it more wrong if you were trying…there’s just been a hell of a lot of self-inflicted wounds”.
