Steven Holloway: NZ broadcast deal a big step in right direction

Auckalnd City FC celebrate their win against Hawke's Bay United in the final of the ASB Premiership at Kiwitea Street. 5 April 2015. Photo / Dean Purcell.

New Zealand Football have spent the past two months fighting with their backs against the wall but yesterday, in a positive counter-attack, the national body released the best news the domestic game has heard in more than a decade.

The ASB Premiership - New Zealand's contentious national league which is set for an overhaul next year - will this season be screened live on Sky Sport.

New Zealand Football have been working feverishly behind the scenes over the past 12 months to navigate issues with facilities, camera equipment, grounds and finances to put a deal in place that will see 32 of the competition's 59 matches broadcast live, along with a weekly 30-minute highlights package.

For the franchises, fans and future of the domestic game, this is a significant boost.

For the past 11 seasons, the league has played out under the radar. There was a weekly highlights show for the first couple of years but that soon disappeared and Kiwi fans could often only follow their favourite team away from home by live text updates, and this season on Twitter.

For the eight national league franchises, this deal has the potential to be a game-changer.

NZF boss Andy Martin described the broadcasting deal as a way to "give the teams in the league a fighting chance to start their own businesses".

This is important because, for 11 years, the national league franchises had been largely invisible to sponsors. Companies struggled to see how they would get a return on their investment by sponsoring a team in a league that no one sees.

While the broadcast deal is unlikely to have a major effect on crowds, it pumps the product out to a national audience.

It's the first time since the late 1970s that a domestic match that is not a final will be broadcast live on TV.

So what will a successful season look like for Sky and NZF?

"We're not holding each other to hard and fast specific KPIs," Martin said. "We know what good looks like between us. We know what we're trying to get out of this and we'll work together and learn as we go along.

"At the end of the year, we'll look at whether it has improved for them - their audience - and, for us, the outlook of domestic football in New Zealand."

There are still big questions about what the future of the competition looks like. Martin said they are in the final stages of consultation for next season's competition and hope to announce the new plans in the next few months.

Martin wants more teams in the league and a better connection between grassroots and the national league, but didn't want to say more until the details are finalised.

It's a big step for Sky TV. For many in the football community, Sky had become largely redundant after losing the rights to the English Premier League, but they have gone a long way to amending their shortcomings by including the national league alongside the A-League, FFA Cup, FA Cup, Champions League and selected MLS games.

It's been a turbulent two months for NZF, but this is a big step in the right direction.