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A couple of articles from the Daily Telegraph,
NRL 2020 Season relaunch date: Peter V’landys confirms May return
In a stunning development ahead of Thursday’s crucial meeting of the NRL’s Project Apollo team, there is an increasing chance that rugby league will be back on our TV screens well before June 1.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson will head into Thursday’s innovation meeting armed with a two-pronged competition model as the NRL prepares to axe the Sydney self-isolation plan ahead of a late May kick-off.
News Corp Australia can reveal the NRL’s innovation committee is considering scrapping the Sydney ‘Bubble’ idea with pandemic experts confident NRL stars can remain at home without a 14-day lockdown at Homebush.
That is a sign the NRL is increasingly confident the Telstra Premiership will resume on either May 21 or 28 in a stunning fightback amid the coronavirus ordeal.
The NRL’s innovation committee had set a target date of July 1 as part of its Project Apollo objectives - but ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys is ready to launch earlier.
It can be revealed Robinson will table two structural competition options at Thursday’s innovation committee meeting after holding a phone hook-up with the code’s 16 coaches on Tuesday.
The coaches discussed a 15-round competition draw or splitting the NRL into two conferences.
Robinson canvassed the opinion of all coaches and will suggest those two models to the innovation team, which is understood to be leaning towards shelving the conference plan to ensure every team plays each other once.
State of Origin remains on the agenda and is likely to be played around July or August in front of empty stadiums.
V’landys said it is possible the NRL could resume on May 21 but is more bullish about a re-launch the following week.
“I am optimistic (the season could be back playing on May 21),” V’landys said.
“The committee is considering that (on Thursday) and I don’t want to pre-empt any of their recommendations, but that (May 21) is a possibility, yes.
“The most important thing for me is restarting the season.
“We want to get everyone’s spirits back up.
“You have to inspire people.
“I appreciate there is going to be no crowds but having rugby league back on the TV will just bring back a little bit of normality.”
It was widely believed the NRL would order the code’s 480 players into a 14-day self-isolation program in western Sydney. The committee will debate the merits of a ‘Bubble’ but the NRL’s medical experts are increasingly content for players to remain in lockdown at home with their families.
As revealed by News Corp Australia, the Warriors will receive New Zealand and Australian government exemptions to allow them to enter a fortnight’s self-isolation in Sydney.
Innovation committee chairman Wayne Pearce said the panel would consider a coronavirus Plan B safety-net with the competition draw in the event a player comes down with COVID-19.
“I’d be disappointed if we couldn’t get it back up and running before then (July 1),” he said.
“We could run the competition right up until Christmas time and we have to build some bandwidth in the season if there is a biosecurity breach and a player gets the virus.
“There has to be contingencies for how we keep the integrity of the competition intact. There’s a few things we have to factor in.”
Nine and Foxtel play hardball with NRL over Season reboot
Rugby league’s broadcasters are playing hardball about the rest of the season being staged behind closed doors and potentially extending beyond early October, arguing it’s not the premium product they signed up for.
NRL powerbrokers are eager to get the competition up and running again as quickly as possible and an innovation committee headed by former Balmain captain Wayne Pearce will put a recommendation to the ARL Commission on Thursday that includes a May restart.
The ARL Commission is expected to sign off on the return of the NRL for as early as May.
There are hopes that if that gets off the ground a grand final could still be played by its scheduled date of October 4 following a truncated regular season as well as a mid-year State of Origin series.
However, the resumption of play will not automatically lead to broadcast rights money pouring back into the revenue-starved code at the level it previously did under the $1.8 billion five-year deal with Nine Entertainment and Foxtel.
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According to multiple sources, Nine chief executive Hugh Marks has made it clear to the NRL that club and Origin matches played without crowds are considered an inferior product and, as a less attractive television spectacle, have a lower value.
Sources say that Foxtel has not raised a problem with the absence of crowds in its talks with League Central. But the subscription television provider is still expected to bargain for a reduced fee, particularly if plans to restart the season next month don’t come off and it ends up having to run deep into spring and even summer.
Foxtel and Nine, which owns this masthead, have indicated to the NRL that a later finish to the season is another factor that reduces the value of their broadcast rights, mainly because of clashes with other sports.
Broadcasters will already pay discounted amounts if there are less rounds played than under the terms of the contracts they signed in 2015 and which became active for the 2018 season.
But a tussle looms over the final figures that should be paid by Nine and Foxtel, who didn’t make their latest quarterly instalments last week after the season was suspended.
The NRL will argue that if matches are being played it should be paid the $13 million a round it generally receives, but it is bracing for robust negotiations, particularly with Nine, which wants a new agreement now that the game is not delivering on its contract as a result of COVID-19.
Contacted on Wednesday, ARLC chairman Peter V’landys said discussions with the broadcasters were commercially sensitive.
“All I can say is that I’m extremely confident both our broadcast partners will be happy,” V'landys said.
“Hugh is a good man. He’s a very good CEO. He’s looking after Channel Nine’s interests. I’m looking after the NRL’s. We’ll meet somewhere where we’re both happy.”
A Nine spokeswoman declined to comment and Foxtel chief executive Patrick Delany did not return calls.
Foxtel’s deal with the NRL is worth about $200m a year, while Nine announced to the stock exchange last week it would save $130m this year if the remainder of the league season was abandoned.
While there was an expectation television ratings would increase when NRL games were closed to crowds for round two, they actually went down marginally from 2.63m to 2.6m across the two broadcasters, with Fox Sports up from round one and Nine down.
Foxtel, which has made 200 employees redundant this week and stood down another 140, is desperate for content to retain subscribers but it also has heavy cricket commitments during summer and could also have the AFL running well beyond its schedule deeper into the year.
Nine also has some cricket still on its books. It is due to televise the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia, which is set down for October 18 to November 15, although it is far from a certainty to go ahead despite the planning of organisers to isolate and quarantine players.
NRL 2020 Season relaunch date: Peter V’landys confirms May return
In a stunning development ahead of Thursday’s crucial meeting of the NRL’s Project Apollo team, there is an increasing chance that rugby league will be back on our TV screens well before June 1.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson will head into Thursday’s innovation meeting armed with a two-pronged competition model as the NRL prepares to axe the Sydney self-isolation plan ahead of a late May kick-off.
News Corp Australia can reveal the NRL’s innovation committee is considering scrapping the Sydney ‘Bubble’ idea with pandemic experts confident NRL stars can remain at home without a 14-day lockdown at Homebush.
That is a sign the NRL is increasingly confident the Telstra Premiership will resume on either May 21 or 28 in a stunning fightback amid the coronavirus ordeal.
The NRL’s innovation committee had set a target date of July 1 as part of its Project Apollo objectives - but ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys is ready to launch earlier.
It can be revealed Robinson will table two structural competition options at Thursday’s innovation committee meeting after holding a phone hook-up with the code’s 16 coaches on Tuesday.
The coaches discussed a 15-round competition draw or splitting the NRL into two conferences.
Robinson canvassed the opinion of all coaches and will suggest those two models to the innovation team, which is understood to be leaning towards shelving the conference plan to ensure every team plays each other once.
State of Origin remains on the agenda and is likely to be played around July or August in front of empty stadiums.
V’landys said it is possible the NRL could resume on May 21 but is more bullish about a re-launch the following week.
“I am optimistic (the season could be back playing on May 21),” V’landys said.
“The committee is considering that (on Thursday) and I don’t want to pre-empt any of their recommendations, but that (May 21) is a possibility, yes.
“The most important thing for me is restarting the season.
“We want to get everyone’s spirits back up.
“You have to inspire people.
“I appreciate there is going to be no crowds but having rugby league back on the TV will just bring back a little bit of normality.”
It was widely believed the NRL would order the code’s 480 players into a 14-day self-isolation program in western Sydney. The committee will debate the merits of a ‘Bubble’ but the NRL’s medical experts are increasingly content for players to remain in lockdown at home with their families.
As revealed by News Corp Australia, the Warriors will receive New Zealand and Australian government exemptions to allow them to enter a fortnight’s self-isolation in Sydney.
Innovation committee chairman Wayne Pearce said the panel would consider a coronavirus Plan B safety-net with the competition draw in the event a player comes down with COVID-19.
“I’d be disappointed if we couldn’t get it back up and running before then (July 1),” he said.
“We could run the competition right up until Christmas time and we have to build some bandwidth in the season if there is a biosecurity breach and a player gets the virus.
“There has to be contingencies for how we keep the integrity of the competition intact. There’s a few things we have to factor in.”
Nine and Foxtel play hardball with NRL over Season reboot
Rugby league’s broadcasters are playing hardball about the rest of the season being staged behind closed doors and potentially extending beyond early October, arguing it’s not the premium product they signed up for.
NRL powerbrokers are eager to get the competition up and running again as quickly as possible and an innovation committee headed by former Balmain captain Wayne Pearce will put a recommendation to the ARL Commission on Thursday that includes a May restart.
The ARL Commission is expected to sign off on the return of the NRL for as early as May.
There are hopes that if that gets off the ground a grand final could still be played by its scheduled date of October 4 following a truncated regular season as well as a mid-year State of Origin series.
However, the resumption of play will not automatically lead to broadcast rights money pouring back into the revenue-starved code at the level it previously did under the $1.8 billion five-year deal with Nine Entertainment and Foxtel.
Advertisement
According to multiple sources, Nine chief executive Hugh Marks has made it clear to the NRL that club and Origin matches played without crowds are considered an inferior product and, as a less attractive television spectacle, have a lower value.
Sources say that Foxtel has not raised a problem with the absence of crowds in its talks with League Central. But the subscription television provider is still expected to bargain for a reduced fee, particularly if plans to restart the season next month don’t come off and it ends up having to run deep into spring and even summer.
Foxtel and Nine, which owns this masthead, have indicated to the NRL that a later finish to the season is another factor that reduces the value of their broadcast rights, mainly because of clashes with other sports.
Broadcasters will already pay discounted amounts if there are less rounds played than under the terms of the contracts they signed in 2015 and which became active for the 2018 season.
But a tussle looms over the final figures that should be paid by Nine and Foxtel, who didn’t make their latest quarterly instalments last week after the season was suspended.
The NRL will argue that if matches are being played it should be paid the $13 million a round it generally receives, but it is bracing for robust negotiations, particularly with Nine, which wants a new agreement now that the game is not delivering on its contract as a result of COVID-19.
Contacted on Wednesday, ARLC chairman Peter V’landys said discussions with the broadcasters were commercially sensitive.
“All I can say is that I’m extremely confident both our broadcast partners will be happy,” V'landys said.
“Hugh is a good man. He’s a very good CEO. He’s looking after Channel Nine’s interests. I’m looking after the NRL’s. We’ll meet somewhere where we’re both happy.”
A Nine spokeswoman declined to comment and Foxtel chief executive Patrick Delany did not return calls.
Foxtel’s deal with the NRL is worth about $200m a year, while Nine announced to the stock exchange last week it would save $130m this year if the remainder of the league season was abandoned.
While there was an expectation television ratings would increase when NRL games were closed to crowds for round two, they actually went down marginally from 2.63m to 2.6m across the two broadcasters, with Fox Sports up from round one and Nine down.
Foxtel, which has made 200 employees redundant this week and stood down another 140, is desperate for content to retain subscribers but it also has heavy cricket commitments during summer and could also have the AFL running well beyond its schedule deeper into the year.
Nine also has some cricket still on its books. It is due to televise the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia, which is set down for October 18 to November 15, although it is far from a certainty to go ahead despite the planning of organisers to isolate and quarantine players.
