Clubs are disappointed that six matches through the NAB Challenge will not be broadcast, but the AFL has defended the decision.
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Foxtel has the exclusive rights to the pre-season series but will show only 21 of the 27 matches, although this is an increase of three on last season.
Two of the matches which will not be broadcast include Saturday's clash between St Kilda and Brisbane at the Moreton Bay Central Sports Complex in Queensland, and Sunday's clash between North Melbourne and the Crows in Port Lincoln.
Several of the clubs which have missed out on having a match broadcast told Fairfax Media they had wanted to live stream the clash through their own websites. They were prepared to use the footage from the few cameras already set up in such spots as behind the goals, the purpose of these cameras already being to supply vision to clubs for coaching reviews.
However, the AFL has rejected it. AFL general manager of broadcasting Simon Lethlean said the league had its reasons. "I have spoken to enough clubs about it. We have gone from 13 to 18 regional games so the cost to Foxtel is extreme for those games because they are much bigger set-ups. We have worked closely with them to get more coverage than last year," Lethlean said on Thursday.
"The cost of streaming the game to the quality that we would want it to be on our network from regional revenues ... is pretty significant. The clubs I don't think would have budgeted for that cost. That is a logistical thing.
"It's also quite difficult, if we are only scheduling from a Thursday to a Sunday, which we are this year, compared to 18 in a row [last year], and taking more games regionally, we can't avoid heat issues and have the right lighting to get all 27 games we need for Fox to do it. Every club is broadcast twice, which is a great result and there are 12 teams which have missed one game."
The AFL, however, will provide a three-minute wrap of each quarter posted on its website soon after the break in play.
The four remaining matches which won't be broadcast are between Greater Western Sydney and Gold Coast in Blacktown (March 7), Port Adelaide and West Coast at Norwood Oval (March 8), the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne at Eureka Stadium (March 14) and the Swans against Fremantle at Drummoyne Oval (March 15).
