By Oliver Walker-Peel (@olliewalkerpeel) and Neal Symons (@neal_symons)
UPDATE: 12/10/22
The broadcast locations for the docuseries has been announced.
The show will premiere each Thursday at 7:30pm AEDT on 10 Play, KEEPUP.COM.AU, the KEEPUP app and KEEPUP on YouTube. It will be available on Paramount+, and then on Saturdays, it will be available at 2pm AEDT on 10 Bold before the evenings A-League Men Match
The Australian Professional Leagues have announced a behind-the-scenes docuseries that will take a deep dive into the characters of the A-Leagues, with 30 episodes filmed and aired week-to-week.
To be premiered on the 13th of October, each episode features different coaches, players and more. Incredible access into the lives of footballers is shown with episodes with new Melbourne Victory marquee signing Nani, former Premier League striker Charlie Austin and more.
It represents the first foray into documentary production for the Australian Professional Leagues, with Sydney FC airing their documentary on Paramount Plus from the 29th of September.
Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Professional Leagues Danny Towsend was excited by the prospect of the documentary, and the reach it could have in terms of the wider Australian general public.
With a team of staff brought in to help facilitate the series, namely production company Jam Tv, the series is set to have a huge impact on bringing the public behind the four walls of the A-Leagues.
“It’s not just about the content itself, the 30 episodes I think in terms of what it is going to the engagement in our game is going to be phenomenal,” Townsend said at the A-Leagues Season Launch exclusively to Kick360.
“The insight that fans are going to get into the players, the coaches, the staff, the fans in and around the clubs is going to be first-class and I don’t think anyone in the world has undertaken something like that.
“I think importantly, we have got 40-odd staff joining in a content team to capture footage all over the league and then cut that up and dice and use it to drive social audiences and other digital fan engagement initiatives. It is not about the documentary itself, it is a whole content initiative that we are excited by.”
With the start of the season looming, Townsend is keen to try and capitalise on the increasing talk into the new campaign.
While conceding the A-Leagues place on the football code pyramid in the country, he dispelled worries about a potential lack of advertisement into the league.
With the likes of KEEPUP and Paramount, alongside Network Ten, again set to be key as we move into 2022-23, Townsend is bullish on maintaining and keeping momentum.
“We don’t have the luxury of budgets like the AFL and the NRL, so trying to compete with them when they are at the height of their season is not really that smart.
“We sit back and we will use these next two weeks to really drive engagement, I think we have got our channels that we have been firing up, obviously we have got the Australia Cup this weekend which will put a bit more focus on football.
“I think the next two weeks are going to be big for us to lead into a big Round one.
“At the moment, [A-Leagues All Access] is going to be definitely on KEEPUP on our web and our app, and also on our KEEPUP YouTube channel, but we are also negotiating with commercial broadcast to put it on a platform somewhere.
“Our preference is that, but it is a content series that anyone would be interested in. We take it to our partners at Paramount first.”
Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images
