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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...s/news-story/956788c93fe3d01a45ce5762d3502bbb
NRL to share rationale on $150m digital strategy amid Ten troubles
Club bosses have put the game’s digital strategy under the gun as they seek to secure their own futures from 2018, the argy-bargy over finances to a large extent fuelling the tension between clubs and the NRL.
The game’s chief digital officer, Rebekah Horne, who coincidentally was the architect of the digital strategy at the Ten Network before joining the game’s governing body, is scheduled to address those very club bosses at a meeting in Sydney today.
Club chairs and chief executives have been invited to the meeting, where chairman John Grant and chief executive Todd Greenberg will front the group for the first time since the spectacular fallout last month over club funding.
Grant subsequently fought off another threat to his leadership in the wake of that meeting but his time at the helm is slowly coming to an end, having agreed to step down from his role on the commission in February.
The NRL has allocated a large chunk of the new broadcasting money to the game’s digital strategy as it looks to future-proof the organisation against a possible slump in broadcasting revenue beyond 2023. Its concerns have been amplified to a significant extent by the dramas unfolding at Ten, the company having been placed in voluntary administration yesterday amid financial difficulties.
Ten has had a long-term interest in buying rights to NRL games, but its attempt to secure a slice of the action during the last negotiations was stymied by the rival Nine Network. That competitive tension helped push up the value of rights to commercial television as the game secured a $1.8 billion deal, the biggest in its history.
However, there are genuine fears at the NRL that broadcasting rights at the next round of negotiations will drop dramatically, a concern heightened by Ten’s troubles.
Aside from the digital strategy, club bosses will also receive a briefing on talks over the collective bargaining agreement, whole-of-game funding and a half-yearly financial update.
The ongoing uncertainty surrounding the salary cap is again expected to be a talking point, although it is understood the NRL tabled an offer of $9.6m to the players’ union during their recent lock-in. The figure was made up of a base cap of $8.4m, a $400,000 integrity fund, a $300,000 veteran player allowance, $100,000 for motor vehicles, $100,000 for union fees and $300,000 for development-list players.
Some clubs want the development-list amount rolled into the cap. Greenberg is expected to front the meeting, where the clubs will also discuss the football department cap, the strategic plan for the next five years and the push for constitutional reform.
It is understood South Sydney chairman Nick Pappas wrote to the QRL yesterday on behalf of the clubs as they attempt to strike a deal on commission reform that would result in the states and clubs having two representatives apiece on the body. The QRL has endorsed a new-look 10-person commission on the proviso that the chair is not given a casting vote. However, the idea of giving the chair a casting vote was part of the review into the constitution conducted by Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates.
NRL to share rationale on $150m digital strategy amid Ten troubles
- The Australian
- 12:00AM June 15, 2017
- Brent Read
Club bosses have put the game’s digital strategy under the gun as they seek to secure their own futures from 2018, the argy-bargy over finances to a large extent fuelling the tension between clubs and the NRL.
The game’s chief digital officer, Rebekah Horne, who coincidentally was the architect of the digital strategy at the Ten Network before joining the game’s governing body, is scheduled to address those very club bosses at a meeting in Sydney today.
Club chairs and chief executives have been invited to the meeting, where chairman John Grant and chief executive Todd Greenberg will front the group for the first time since the spectacular fallout last month over club funding.
Grant subsequently fought off another threat to his leadership in the wake of that meeting but his time at the helm is slowly coming to an end, having agreed to step down from his role on the commission in February.
The NRL has allocated a large chunk of the new broadcasting money to the game’s digital strategy as it looks to future-proof the organisation against a possible slump in broadcasting revenue beyond 2023. Its concerns have been amplified to a significant extent by the dramas unfolding at Ten, the company having been placed in voluntary administration yesterday amid financial difficulties.
Ten has had a long-term interest in buying rights to NRL games, but its attempt to secure a slice of the action during the last negotiations was stymied by the rival Nine Network. That competitive tension helped push up the value of rights to commercial television as the game secured a $1.8 billion deal, the biggest in its history.
However, there are genuine fears at the NRL that broadcasting rights at the next round of negotiations will drop dramatically, a concern heightened by Ten’s troubles.
Aside from the digital strategy, club bosses will also receive a briefing on talks over the collective bargaining agreement, whole-of-game funding and a half-yearly financial update.
The ongoing uncertainty surrounding the salary cap is again expected to be a talking point, although it is understood the NRL tabled an offer of $9.6m to the players’ union during their recent lock-in. The figure was made up of a base cap of $8.4m, a $400,000 integrity fund, a $300,000 veteran player allowance, $100,000 for motor vehicles, $100,000 for union fees and $300,000 for development-list players.
Some clubs want the development-list amount rolled into the cap. Greenberg is expected to front the meeting, where the clubs will also discuss the football department cap, the strategic plan for the next five years and the push for constitutional reform.
It is understood South Sydney chairman Nick Pappas wrote to the QRL yesterday on behalf of the clubs as they attempt to strike a deal on commission reform that would result in the states and clubs having two representatives apiece on the body. The QRL has endorsed a new-look 10-person commission on the proviso that the chair is not given a casting vote. However, the idea of giving the chair a casting vote was part of the review into the constitution conducted by Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates.
