While this is already the case in South Australia and Western Australia when their respective AFL clubs play on the road, it is not the case in Victoria when all the Melbourne radio stations regularly opt to cover a game being played in Melbourne at the same time as another Victorian club is playing interstate.
Only last Saturday Western Bulldogs fans were denied any radio coverage of their huge match against Adelaide at AAMI Stadium (with only the last quarter broadcast on the ABC) while all the radio stations opted to cover the Melbourne-Kangaroos' game at the MCG instead.
While Demons and Roos fans had the option of going to the MCG to see that match, which was also broadcast on free-to-air television - Bulldogs fans in Melbourne could neither see nor hear their team play unless they had access to pay-television as the match was broadcast in full only on the Fox Footy Channel.
With the next batch of radio rights currently under negotiation, the AFL's chief operating officer Ben Buckley said on Tuesday the league would move to ensure that from next season all teams would receive radio coverage in their home markets when they play interstate.
"That is a key objective in the next radio rights agreement that all matches relevant to a city are broadcast by a radio licensee in that city," he said on Tuesday.
"We acknowledge that is one of the deficiencies of the existing agreement and we plan to address it in the new agreement."
With the radio rights battle heating up, Buckley denied the AFL was planning to buy its own station to ensure the type of coverage it wants.
However he did not rule out the league deciding to invest in part ownership of a station should the opportunity arise.
"If a radio station came to us and said we want to acquire the rights and we want to acquire the rights under this business model and some of that may include some sort of equity position in the radio station, then we would consider that at the time."
While the television rights for 2007-11 have been decided following the successful $780 million bid from Channels Seven and Ten, Buckley said the exact details of their coverage had yet to be decided.
That means the possibility that there could be more games on pay television next year or fewer games. Foxtel currently shows three live games a week with the other five split between Channels Nine and Ten.
"All I can say is Seven and Ten have the rights to all eight games (a week)," Buckley said.
"That is what they acquired, but as part of that they have got the right to sub-licence up to four games a week to a pay television operator."
"Seven and Ten as we understand it are in the process of initiating those discussions with Foxtel and other potential pay TV operators."
