Pay radio???

Pay television is a stable in today's media landscape but there has been very little discussion about online pay walls for broadcast content. A local case in point is the radio coverage of AFL football in Australia. Until 2010, fans outside of Victoria could live stream football commentary via the webpage of the broadcasting radio station. This essentially allows a global audience to access a local product and in turn contributes to growing the game and game revenues.

The decision by the AFL in 2011 to construct pay walls in front of this coverage is an interesting development. All traffic attempting to access live streaming of commentary online is now redirected to the "AFL Match Centre" where content is then available under a user pays system. Previously users could access the broadcasters webpage and live stream the same content local audiences were listening to via their radio: SEN or ABC Grandstand. Now users find a continual loop message redirecting them to the Match Centre site.

I believe this decision raises interesting questions about content that is essentially free to some consumers and charged to others based on the distribution platform. Whether this is legal or not I'll leave to others to decide but I think it highlights the evolutionary nature of the online environment. There is one thing I'm sure about. The AFL is a trailblazer in the sports administration field in Australia so it's only a matter of time until NRL and Rugby fans will have dig deep to listen to their favourite games as well.

Note: links will illustrate my point during live coverage times of AFL games.