News Coronavirus and NRL

[big hit!]

Oh yes, I'm sure some of the blockbusters of the past 12-24 months where it has been the team leading the comp v the wooden spooners has seem bumper ratings for Channel 9. Now true you can't predict where teams will be on the ladder, but when you continually pick say the Bulldogs when last year no one even their most die hard supporters would have said they would be contenders, so who is going to want to watch games involving them which would be one sided? That's more the point. Nine piock the same teams regardless of where people anyone would predict they would be in finals contention or not. Fact is when the draw was only partially fixed, how many times did they pick games which involved teams which would have no impact on the finals in those last 5-6 rounds of the year?

If you want eyeballs, people want to see quality games, not one sided slaughters, or boreathon grinding football.

Nine are selecting the games that will maximise their revenue. They are obviously putting Canterbury games on because more folks keep on tuning into their games. And it makes sense - they have one of the largest support bases in the comp. Same as Brisbane, same as Parra, same as Souths, same as Saints.

You’re assuming folks will watch any game. There are many fans who just watch their team. This must be the case if Nine continue to select these teams in late season flexible scheduling when they’re out of contention for finals.

Once again though, your beef should be with the NRL. They’re the ones that hand control of the schedule to the broadcasters for more rights fees. What sort of organisation gives up control of its product?

 

[LeagueXIII]

Alrght sure mate, NRL live pass will grow to Netflix size one day.

In the 90's the league gave pay TV rights away for peanuts, today Fox pay a billion for it.

 

[seanoff]

Sure who cares who does the camera when you own the license.

I only know NFL and NHL.

How does EPL work?

Can I buy direct?

Again not you directly, if ask a question is it generally for anyone who can answer.

Facts I love, opinions welcome.

No. BTSport, Sky and Amazon. They have apps but you need subscribe. Not an EPL app

 

[seanoff]

For the most of the games yes, but it also has NFL Network which is an NFL owned 24 hour NFL network owned and run by the NFL, it produces original content and shows content made by NFL films which is also owned by the NFL. The NFL network also has exclusive games, in 2019 some of the Thursday Night games were exclusive to NFL network.

Not anymore. Fox and amazon brought in. So on all 3 now

 

[League Unlimited News]

 

[shear_joy9]

surprised penrith haven't punted tyrone to the curb yet.
seems to be such a great influence on their culture

 

[Perth Red]

Adding what it costs for production need to clear $200m a year from streaming off the site. I don’t see that happening... doesn’t mean they shouldn’t run the site just limits the potential

advertising more than covers production costs

 

[franklin2323]

advertising more than covers production costs

Tell that to Fox and ch9 that are both bleeding money

 

[Perth Red]

I get the $35 a month package and share with 2 mates which allows watching on 3 devices and there is no geolocation limits.

ok so get two mate# and get nrl live for $6.66 each lol! Unless you are a fan of multiple sports it will be cheaper for you!

 

[Perth Red]

FTA sucks but the discussion is whether those people paying for Fox Sports/Kayo would pay direct for only NRL.

if you’re an nrl fan and it’s cheaper why wouldn’t you?

Tell that to Fox and ch9 that are both bleeding money

that’s not due to the $15mill it costs to produce Ch9 nrl games, it’s due to how sht their tv station is!

 

[unforgiven]

ok so get two mate# and get nrl live for $6.66 each lol! Unless you are a fan of multiple sports it will be cheaper for you!

But I am a fan of multiple sports, I will get it but lets not make out $20 is cheap, my NFL gamepass subscription only costs me $200 a year.

 

[Jerkwad2000]

Very strawman of you. It doesnt need to be the size of netflix to give NRL a better and more secure revenue. It needs around 800k subscribers paying $20 a month. The way to achieve that is to increase the games popularity and following.

In what world are you living? 800k subscribers? There isn't a snowballs chance in hell on a month of Sundays of that happening.

I'll come back to something I posted the other day. The WWE - a huge, worldwide brand - has their own streaming service. This is available worldwide. They have about 1.4M subscribers.

Correlate that to their YouTube subscription base of 59.6M. So, potentially, there are about 60M subscribers out there worldwide. Less than 2.5% of that fan base on YouTube actually pay for a subscription.

Lets now compare that to the NRL who have 67.3K subscribers. If you add in NRL on Nine which have 100K subscribers (and assume that none are subscribed to both), that is 167K. If the same happens as does with WWE, that equals less than 4000 subscribers.

Of course, that's all hypothetical. Lets look at some ACTUAL numbers from the NRLs Annual Report of 2019 (https://www.nrl.com/siteassets/2020/nrl_annualreport_2019_hr.pdf)

In the 2018 year, digital revenue was 23.593M (out of a total revenue of 523.562M).
In the 2019 year, digital revenue was 24.066M (out of a total revenue of 555.915M)

Digital revenue between the 2 years went up approx 2%. Total revenue went up approx 6%. Also, please note this is REVENUE, not profit. We know that in the 2019 year. the NRL had a surplus of approx 30M. Digital revenue was approx 4.3% of total revenue, meaning that digital revenue equated to approx 1.3M of the overall surplus.

There is plenty of info in that annual report talking about huge increases in numbers etc. Including the fact that 1.3M fans have registered to an NRL account. Even if you come back to my hypothesis about comparison with WWE, that still only comes to 32.5K potential subscribers.

Even in the NFL, one of the biggest revenue sports in the world, the money they get from digital is small as a percentage. It's estimated in 2018 that the streaming rights for the NFL were worth about 500M - out of a 15B revenue. So about 3%.

At the end of the day, no sport is ever going to be able to make enough money to support and sustain themselves based purely on streaming. If it were viable, a sport like the NBA, or EPL would have gone down that path. The facts are that TV is king thanks to the revenue it makes on advertising.

 

[Perth Red]

In what world are you living? 800k subscribers? There isn't a snowballs chance in hell on a month of Sundays of that happening.

I'll come back to something I posted the other day. The WWE - a huge, worldwide brand - has their own streaming service. This is available worldwide. They have about 1.4M subscribers.

Correlate that to their YouTube subscription base of 59.6M. So, potentially, there are about 60M subscribers out there worldwide. Less than 2.5% of that fan base on YouTube actually pay for a subscription.

Lets now compare that to the NRL who have 67.3K subscribers. If you add in NRL on Nine which have 100K subscribers (and assume that none are subscribed to both), that is 167K. If the same happens as does with WWE, that equals less than 4000 subscribers.

Of course, that's all hypothetical. Lets look at some ACTUAL numbers from the NRLs Annual Report of 2019 (https://www.nrl.com/siteassets/2020/nrl_annualreport_2019_hr.pdf)

In the 2018 year, digital revenue was 23.593M (out of a total revenue of 523.562M).
In the 2019 year, digital revenue was 24.066M (out of a total revenue of 555.915M)

Digital revenue between the 2 years went up approx 2%. Total revenue went up approx 6%. Also, please note this is REVENUE, not profit. We know that in the 2019 year. the NRL had a surplus of approx 30M. Digital revenue was approx 4.3% of total revenue, meaning that digital revenue equated to approx 1.3M of the overall surplus.

There is plenty of info in that annual report talking about huge increases in numbers etc. Including the fact that 1.3M fans have registered to an NRL account. Even if you come back to my hypothesis about comparison with WWE, that still only comes to 32.5K potential subscribers.

Even in the NFL, one of the biggest revenue sports in the world, the money they get from digital is small as a percentage. It's estimated in 2018 that the streaming rights for the NFL were worth about 500M - out of a 15B revenue. So about 3%.

At the end of the day, no sport is ever going to be able to make enough money to support and sustain themselves based purely on streaming. If it were viable, a sport like the NBA, or EPL would have gone down that path. The facts are that TV is king thanks to the revenue it makes on advertising.

it’s Coming, traditional tv is slowly dying. The figures rumoured for the next nrl deal are less than the last deal for the first time ever. As more people dump fta and paytv and switch to streaming services there won’t be the viewers, subscribers or advertisers to pay big deals. That will mean direct sales of content t become a more viable option. Who’d have said a few years ago that fox would launch a cheap streaming service that would be close to 1/2 million subscribers within 18 months?

 

[betcats]

Acquiring PL rights single-handedly gave Optus Sport its footing in Australia. If you think getting a streaming company, existing or startup, wouldn't be a good fit for RL, you're delusional.

That's not what was being said. Apollo brought up the growth of Netflix the last ten years as some sort of argument that NRL digital online could expand rapidly.

The NRL is already on a streaming company besides its own live pass offering I never said its not a good fit online I have a subscription myself or I did when it was on.

 

[betcats]

It wont be luck, it will be growing the games fanbase and giving them content they want, how they want it at a price point they are happy with. You think Fox are going to continue to be able to pay $200mill plus a year for NRL when everyone has dumped their satellite for streaming services at a fraction of the price? The end is nigh. Get in front of it or end up like taxis.

Growing the fanbase is a lot easier said than done. Your idea of adding the png and French domestic comps to live pass are typical dumb ideas from someone who isn't thinking things through and thinks you just have to say something to make it so.

 

[MilkShark]

I would never, NEVER, pay a subscription service for just nrl.

I'd rather watch the Supercars and NBA over NRL to be honest, they are far more enjoyable a sport to watch.

Rugby league is not the rugby league I grew up watching. Its boring, and full overpaid under talented players.

 

[AJB1102]

I would never, NEVER, pay a subscription service for just nrl.

I'd rather watch the Supercars and NBA over NRL to be honest, they are far more enjoyable a sport to watch.

Rugby league is not the rugby league I grew up watching. Its boring, and full overpaid under talented players.

Go watch car go brooom brooom!

Bye, Felicia!

 

[MilkShark]

Go watch car go brooom brooom!

Bye, Felicia!

hahaa because there is so much variety in league nowadays

 

[AJB1102]

hahaa because there is so much variety in league nowadays

vroom vroom screeetch wow!

 

[TheVelourFog]

who are these people who only watch League?

the baseline for value has been set

$25 gets you the entire Fox Sports lineup

nobody is paying that for NRL only