All the articles say they did, but keep wearing that tin foil hat
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Which city holds the record of being the only place in the world to be awarded the Olympics Games, Goodwill Games, Commonwealth Games, NRL GF, AwFuL Fumbleflag and the inaugural SOO match?
‘This is a good deal for the NRL ... they should be commended for it’
haha.
That article is so wrong in so many places it’s not funny lol masters should be embarrassed he got it so wrong.‘This is a good deal for the NRL ... they should be commended for it’
Roy Masters
By Roy Masters
December 20, 2021 — 6.53pm
In March this year, AFL boss Gillon McLachlan told his club chief executives that his code would be receiving $475 million a year from TV income in 2023, while the NRL would be earning $300 million.
His prediction, if correct, would mean the biggest gap in TV revenue between the two codes, given that the past $2 billion-plus deals - when monies from pay TV and free-to-air were announced concurrently - were comparable.
However, 2023 was a convenient year for McLachlan to choose because the NRL did not have a FTA deal in place for that year, while the AFL had completed negotiations on both pay and FTA rights through to 2024.
The NRL did have a pay TV deal for 2023, but the figures were secret. ARLC chair Peter V’landys had negotiated an extension to the broadcast rights through to 2027 with Rupert Murdoch’s Foxtel, but refused to reveal details. He was criticised for signing a deal which presumably included simulcast of all eight games per week on Fox, meaning there was little exclusivity to offer the FTA buyer.
On Monday, however, the NRL announced it had finally secured an FTA deal with Nine Entertainment Co which retains its traditional three-games-per-week coverage plus Wednesday night State of Origins and a telecast of the NRLW competition. We can finally make an apples-with-apples comparison on the total TV packages of both codes.
The NRL’s FTA deal is $650 million, cash and contra, over five years, beginning 2023, at an average of $130 million a year. It includes the recently doubled TV rights income from New Zealand and increases in international broadcast rights.
The total package in 2023, according to NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo, will be “over $400 million”, meaning V’Landys’ secret pay TV deal with Foxtel is worth approximately $300 million a year. That is consistent with the general formula that pay TV deals are generally twice those of FTA TV.
Maybe McLachlan was one of the few who knew what V’landys had negotiated from Foxtel when he cited $300 million as the NRL’s total TV income in 2023. If so, he was being convenient with his accounting.
Based on his revelation about the AFL’s numbers in 2023, the NRL is less than $75m a year behind the AFL.
Considering the NRL has eight games a week to telecast and the AFL nine, on a per-club basis, the difference is minimal, even allowing for a 17th team in the NRL (the Dolphins) in 2023: $475 million divided by 18 equals $26.4 million per club, compared to the NRL’s $400 million divided by 17 clubs, which equals $23.5 million.
Furthermore, the NRL now has security of TV income (about two thirds of its total revenue) through to 2027, while the AFL deals with Foxtel and Channel Seven conclude in 2024.
However, on this point, Australia’s leading sports and media advisor Colin Smith predicts AFL monies will rise. “While TV income to sport across the globe is being challenged, the monies for the premium sports in a country will continue to grow,” he said. “AFL and NRL are must-have sports for broadcast rights in Australia because they drive fans to watch it on TV.”
Smith cited the recent NFL deal in the US, which doubled its rights to $13 billion a year without competition.
However, he conceded the NRL had done well, especially after two seasons where games were subject to blow-outs and a clear gap emerged between the haves and have-nots.
“This is a good deal for the NRL,” Smith said. “They should be commended for it.”
Smith also points out that AFL games are longer with more opportunities for commercial breaks and therefore advertising revenue.
“Another tribal team in Brisbane will help the NRL with ratings,” he said of the Queensland viewing audience which is extremely parochial in the teams it watches.
Nine confirmed it will be able to stream games on 9Now, a popular medium with millenials who demand the ability to access sport anytime, anywhere. Younger viewers will therefore be able to watch Nine games on mobile phones, computers and tablets.
A Nine press release said, “After securing the biggest ever BVOD audience in Australia for the 2021 grand final, 9Now will continue to be the premium destination for live streaming and catch up viewing...”
Nine also gains exclusivity of radio rights of NRL games through its Sydney stations 2GB and Brisbane’s 4BC. Abdo insists his deal making was never exclusively about money, claiming he sought consistency of promotion nationally.
Nine’s ownership of newspapers (the Herald and The Age), a national TV network and the premier radio stations should allow this, but there will be resistance in Melbourne, the home of AFL.
After all, long-term leaguies in the Victorian capital recall when the film The Man with Two Brains was being screened on Nine in Melbourne at the same time the rest of eastern Australia was watching the Storm.
‘This is a good deal for the NRL ... they should be commended for it’
The NRL’s new free-to-air deal with Nine will take its total broadcast revenue to over $400m per year until 2027 - a good result, analysts say, after a year when blow-outs and mismatches became more frequent.www.smh.com.au
I don't know what to believe in regards to the broadcast revenue.
nine $130mill, $115mill of it cash
