AFL iPhone App Review: The good, bad and ugly

After their successful release of a 2009 Finals app, the AFL recently launched a season long version. Promoting the launch through their website in the lead-up, there were big expectations for the launch.

Released in the past fortnight, the app is priced at $6 per month (more on that later) and is being developed and released by Telstra (even more on that later). When the $6 price point was released there were, lets just say, less than stellar reviews.

s

The Good:

Unmetred Data: The downloads consumed through the app for a Telstra ‘Next G’ customer is not counted against their data limit. If you want to watch video on demand of any AFL game and you are using your Next G phone or device it’s free. Sadly, I am not a customer. I am a BigPond customer however, which you would think would get me some benefit as there is BigPond branding all over the app, but I’ll still be charged like anybody else.

Video on Demand: (Prepare for a slight tangent) I was overseas last year during the AFL season and wanted to watch an AFL match. As the digital media rights do not include any internet streaming, I was unable to legally watch the game online. I had to download a 1.3 gigabyte torrent the following day and use up a whole lot of my data limit to do so. As a big NBA fan, it frustrated me, as I’m used to streaming games online illegally legally. Now, if I have this app anywhere on the planet, I won’t have to miss any of the key highlights of any match. In a perfect world there would be live in-game streaming such as the MLB.com At Bat 2010 app, but it’s not a perfect world. The fact that Video On Demand is in the app shows that they are listening to their audience.

Team Specific Content: Yes it’s a bit cliché and standard, but I still like the fact that I can get all my team news in the one place. Should AFL teams release iPhone apps in the future, will their app integrate with the official AFL app? Will content be conflicting or even overlap content with one another, will fans want to pay for both the AFL app and their official team app? All these factors need to be taken into consideration.

The Bad:

Telstra: I do feel a bit for the AFL here as I think they don’t have complete control of their application. What I’m assuming here, and I don’t have any contacts at the AFL or Telstra, is that the AFL has gone to Telstra and said what they’d like to achieve, and Telstra has said “yes, but” and placed Telstra and Telstra-related branding and various restrictions on there. However I must admit, I honestly dont know.

1. Yes I need points. When you download the app from the iTunes store, the first words you see are Telstra Corporation Limited. The actual tabs needed to purchase this app are:
   App Store> Sports> Telstra Corporation Limited. The official seller is “Telstra Corp Limited” with no mention that you’re even buying this from the AFL, the AFL is just another client of Telstra’s in this scenario. Little things, I know, but when you purchase Major League Baseball’s app “MLB.com at Bat 2010″, it appears
   App Store> Sports> MLB.com and the seller is “Major League Baseball Advanced Media”.

   Little things.

   

   Screenshot taken from MLB's app

2. Once you finally load the AFL app, you are now greeted with BigPond sport advertising. I have no problem with this, they’re promoting their brand. Once the home page of the app is launched ‘Match Centre’ you are greeted with more BigPond Sport advertising. When you click on the ‘More’ tab you gett more advertising, this time for Telstra-owned entity Tradingpost and a link to download their iPhone app. TradingPost? I’m paying $6 a month to get TradingPost ads? I don’t think so. Combined with the ‘Bigpond for iPhone’ app theyre running as well on the same page, and it cheapens the whole experience. I’m a BigPond user at home and I won’t even use this feature. Let’s say I use another ISP , then this ad is even more irrelevant to me. All these factors are making me want to navigate away and close the app. Not the ideal end user experience.
3. Future editions? Digital media rights for the AFL are up at the end of the year, and from the rumour mill Telstra is the front-runner so far to retain the rights. What impact will Telstra and the restrictions they place on sport have in the long run? With digital ownership of the AFL, NRL and V8 Supercar rights, Telstra have much more control over how you interact with sport than you think.

Excessive Banner Adverting: I get it, you’ve got to pay the bills, we understand that. However, when you click through ‘Video on Demand’ easily the most interesting section in the app, the tab is cluttered with banner ads. Similar to the lay-out of web forums where they have Google Adwords in between posts, banner ads appear in between video links.

Too much banner advertising

It removes any kind of ‘flow’ the page has to it, and I think goes overboard. One or two banner ads I can handle, but not placed continuously throughout the whole tab. On static pages with-in the AFL app where you cant scroll down, such as ‘My Team’, the banner ad remains anchored down the bottom of the tab.

Please have this implemented throughout the entire app!

Other sport apps like ESPN Score Centre have anchored their banner advertising to the bottom of their screen with more success. On static pages where you cant scroll down, such as ‘My Team’, the banner ads remain anchored to the bottom of the tab and doesn’t interfere with my browsing experience.

Anchored banner advertising

Third party sites: What I mean by this is that I have to log in to an external website to get all my dream team data. The dream team integration is great, but I shouldn’t have to log in to another site, enter my user name and password every time and thus chew through more data. A perfect example of how to work this is the AFL’s major competitor (and a really good application in itself), Aussie Rules Live, they have a simple ‘tap to add your player’ into your dream team. Go through each team, tap in the players that are on your team, and viola, no extra sites to log in to and you’ve saved time and data.

Price Point: For now, I think $6 is a bit much (I’ll get into that later). When I downloaded the app in its first week of being in iTunes, there was literally no mention of the fact that this was a monthly subscription. They have since fixed this, but had I not known the subscription was monthly, I would have thought it was a once off payment. I can guarantee you now when it comes to paying their first monthly bill there will be errors, somebody will be double or triple charged, they need to have contingencies in place to counter this. Will I re-subscribe in a months time? Right now I’m yet to be convinced.

Did the AFL decide $6 was the right fee, did Telstra decide $6 was the right fee? Who knows.

How to price iPhone apps

The biggest criticism so far of the app has been it’s price. $6 a month for 12 months is $72 for the year which isn’t a lot, but different price points mean different things to different people. The sporting market place already has so many opportunities to invest your time and money in the industry.  I’m assuming their target market for this app is tech-savy AFL fans who are early adopters of technology and I will go off the following example.. Let’s take an average fan like myself:

I already have Foxtel ($120 a month for a decent package) to watch sport, I may buy an Essendon jumper once a year (another $80), I have internet to get sports news (another $60 a month) and then if I was an AFL or club member you’d add on another $500 for the year to this total. And I don’t even have kids or a family to take care of. There are so many ways for the AFL to already reach us, is $6 a month a reasonable price for people who are already putting in $2,000 to $3,000 a year to support their team and the sport on the whole? What is my opportunity cost in this situation, what am I passing up to commit myself to this app? And what could I purchase instead?

In terms of price comparisons, or examples to look to in the wider market place the AFL was relatively hamstrung. The MLB application is a one-off fee of $17.99 per season, but offers live in-game streaming of video and has received rave reviews. The MLB is a market leader in the US in the digital space for one of these very reasons. You do need to consider also that Apple is taking a percentage of each download, so not all of the $5.99 is heading to the seller. But who is the seller? Another thing you need to consider is what percentage of the purchase price actually ends up in the AFL’s coffers? Is there a 50/50 split with Telstra, 75/25?

Taken from App Marketing 101, you need to consider the following before deciding on a price point:

How much do competitors charge for a similar app? Take a look at the AppStore and review how many apps are similar to yours. Have you produced another Battleship game that is similar to other apps or is it far better? Be honest!

What are the differences between my app and someone else’s? Do you have more features? If it is a new financial calculator, does it offer something more than the other competing apps on the store?

How does your app rate against the competition? Do you feel that your app has better graphics? Better sound? More exciting action? Have you confirmed this with your reviewers, friends, followers, and customers?

How do you define your app and market? If you are selling a tool for sales reps only, have you attempted to define approximately how many sales reps are in your country or market? Of your target market how many of them might own iPhones?

How does your app compare to free apps? If there are many competing free iPhone apps you will need to strongly communicate the value of your app. Overcoming objections to free is a high hurdle that can be mitigated with better marketing.

How much would the app cost to develop by another company? Larger development firms can create an app less expensively than a small developers because they already have developers and graphic designers on staff and can quickly redirect their efforts to that iPhone app. Independent developers may have to outsource some of the skill set of development (especially if it’s a game).

What were the actual development costs or time involved? Knowing your development costs is also very important in helping you determine the price of your app

Future additions

I have already considered a few things for the Cricket Victoria application, but what can be added to the AFL app in the future?

• Fan log-in: I am a big fan of American sports, and thus am pretty involved with ESPN as a fan. When I log into the ESPN website or their app ‘Score Centre’, they know my favourite teams (and then highlight them and give them priority), they know my fantasy teams, they know what I like because I’ve set all this up online. The website flows into the app seamlessly. The AFL needs a user log-in so that instead of having to log into the external websites for DreamTeam for example, I can log-into the AFL app, and on launch it will auto log in all my details.
• Location, Location, Location: Not just relevant to the property market anymore. Social media demi-god and President of Mashable.com Peter Cashmore recently said that the biggest trend at the South By South West festival this year was location-based applications. Applications such as FourSquare and Gowalla that can tag your location according to the GPS in your phone, then allows you to check-in to wherever you are (a bar, hotel, MCG) and talk to others at the same location, leave tips for others and get competitive with one another by their own unique scoring system.What the AFL needs to take from this is that this location based service, can also serve ads. Just like how Google reads your web content to serve you ads, geo-tagging can read your location and serves you ads in the exact same format. Say you’re in a big shopping centre which has an official AFL store, you log into the store and they can then send you location specific advertising or offers. Going to Etihad for the game? When you get there, check-in via foursquare and you can get 10% off at the bar, or 15% off at the team store.

FourSquare's location-based special offer

• Virtulisation: Take a photo of yourself and have your head on the body of an AFL player, make a virtual AFL jersey with your last name and number on the back which you can then double-tap to make your iPhone background. All of these are easy to implement using 3D technologies.
• Platforms: The smartphone market is growing by the day. Currently the app is only available for Apple users through iTunes, in the future it will need to be made for Blackberry, Android Market and Windows platforms.
• Want more Mr.AFL? Contact me

Rival Apps

There are two big local rivals to the official AFL app, and one major complementary app:

• Aussie Rules Live 2010: Free. Major sponsor: Carsales.com.auIf this AFL app had video on demand, it would hands down be the best AFL app out there in my opinion. The app loads smoothly, has minimal advertising, tap-on for dream-team players and when combined with historical stats and tipping integration (although it is through a 3rd party website) it really has it all.Sadly though even this app, which has minimal banner advertising throughout, has received criticism from it’s fans. I think people need to realise that somebody has to pay for the design, somebody has to get it built. Whether it’s Telstra or carsales.com.au, somebody needs to put in the financial capital to get the results out of the human capital.
• Footy Lite: Free. Major sponsor: Triple MSlattery Media and Triple M branded footy app. Another smooth looking app that will integrate heavily with TripleM when the season launches.
• AFL Supercoach: $3.99. Major sponsor: Herald Sun (Superfooty)Offers convenient access to your Supercoach fantasy team. Was in the top 25 most downloaded priced apps in Australian iTunes.

The Ugly: What should be considered when reviewing

Let’s take a moment and step back and reflect. The app is very easy to criticise right now, but there are certain factors to consider before we can give it a full review.

As the AFL is only in pre-season, right now the $6 per months seems a bit excessive. The video on demand doesn’t interest me that much because AFL Pre-season isn’t exactly must-see-TV. The current VOD tab is offering ‘Best Marks of the NAB Grand Final’, ‘Best Goals of the NAB Grand Final’ and a few post match press conferences as well as 1st and 2nd half highlights from the Grand Final. There are also ‘2009 season highlights’ for a few teams and ‘best and fairest’ reviews of selected winners from last year.

For footy nuts they will love this, for me however, I love footy, but not enough to want to go and re watch this stuff and keep paying $6 a month in the off-season.

During the season however, you will want this app if you are a footy fan. I guarantee you, if you’re out at a bar and couldn’t watch the game, wait till x amount of minutes after the game is completed and you can show it all off to your friends. This app will be cool, but not right now. That’s why the reviews so far have been less than spectacular.

Conclusion

If you’re sceptical, hold off, don’t buy the app yet. If I saw those reviews on any other product in the world I wouldn’t want to buy it, 2.5 stars out of 5? If I was thinking of buying a certain brand of DVD player from an online retailer and saw those reviews, I would hold off from buying it. The app will become value for money, but let your mates try it out first and get their review. Any v1.0 technology has bugs and flaws and needs to be improved, the AFL has already updated the app once and more updates will come, and it will get better.

But right now, when compared to the other AFL apps out there, you’re essentially paying $6 for video on demand, and that may not sit well with the average fan.

The AFL doesn’t take losing well, in any scenario. Right now in their fans eyes – in app development at least – they’re losing, and losing badly and it reflects in the reviews. They will start winning soon.

I will come back and review the app mid-season to give a better perspective.

Please leave a comment.