I think it's fta tv that will lose a lot o their control & influence to dictate to sports , the medium itself is dying as people move to other platforms for their entertainment, revenue will decrease & so this will be the last of the big buck deals most sports will receive because stations won't be able to afford it. So the NRL essentially do what they want within contract guidlines with few consequences for the next deal , they know the big fta money won't be there anyway in 2022
I agree FTA is a little on the nose with audiences, hence why many sports are investing heavily into other digital platforms to distribute their product or using multiple networks to present the game. I sense that will evolve quickly towards the end of the current deal.
Circling back to crowds, even with a greater control of the scheduling, is there any confidence that the powers that be would place a greater emphasis on boosting game day attendance? Or would they still be hamstrung by what the dollar impact is in digital media revenues? Boosting crowd attendance is a fairly positive way of getting money back into clubs without the need for such a reliance on growing the share of the central pool of fund from HQ.
A simplistic calc shows that for a 5,000 average attendance increase (and getting to the desired 20k average) at $30 a head across a whole season, you are looking at $30m+ in game day revenue hitting clubs pockets. At $2m per team, I'm sure that would make many teams more self sustainable than they are, which is a desire the NRL has eluded to. The focus currently is too narrow from HQ towards TV money as the most important source of revenue generation.
