Paramount (via Network 10) has a direct equity stake in the A-League. This gives them a dual role....
Broadcaster + part-owner, which creates a clear financial incentive to support and promote the competition.
Whereas Nine Entertainment owns major mastheads like The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and News Corp dominates Australia's tabloid/print industry with The Australian, Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, etc and have no such skin in the game for football, which helps explain uneven mainstream coverage.
Paramount/ Skydance which is bigger than those two combined and some, doesn't own or control major newspaper or digital news outlets....
It's never really been their thing!
But the traditional newspaper industry is struggling and will likely be largely phased out over the coming decades.
Everything in terms of news will be fully digitalised bar the odd niche publication.
Paramount could easily back something like the new Football 360 and financially enhance it to serve as a high levelled digital publication covering Australian football.
It's a great football publication but could be fantastic if given the funds and resources that a News Corp invest in Sport. If I was Paramount I'd look to invest big-time in Football 360, maybe as a major advertising partnership.
I'd leave the current editorial team in place and give them full autonomy on their editorial content preserving credibility and avoid "propaganda" accusations. Many media groups do this successfully with specialist verticals. Although even with autonomy, any financial link invites bias perceptions. So success would almost certainly depend on genuine editorial freedom and quality.
Proper resourcing for F360 could elevate it significantly ie better journalism, more investigative pieces, youth development focus, women's game depth, analytics, etc. without turning it into a pure PR arm.
I'm sure with the right resources and backing, Football 360 (or a similar specialist outlet) could easily evolve into a bona fide, high-quality sporting publication.
And the decline of traditional newspapers creates exactly this opening for focused digital publications. Australian football has long needed stronger, dedicated media and this kind of model could help deliver it.
If Paramount were smart, they’d seriously evaluate something along these lines. It’s a natural extension of their existing stake in the game....
