News Ltd and Control

[franklin2323]

now is the most stupid time to negotiate a new tv deal for the nrl. We clearly have cash flow problems nine and fox are trying to force our hand to extend. V’landys seems happy to just cop it and blame previous admin

Do you think 2 years will be any better?

 

[franklin2323]

I remember a article from a while ago talking about the bunker. Apart from the initial set up cost, the bunker actually makes money through the kfc sponsorship.

Digital could always be done better but I really hope they don’t sell it. The Aus gov is forcing Facebook and google to pay media Companies for articles on their platforms. Another source of revenue.

Like PR has said, I’ll be very interested that when all the huff and puff of the media slows down and the actual facts are revealed V’landys has to own why he made the cuts he did.

The final product is that matters. I think this will be a wake up call for all parties to improve the way things are run

 

[Stormwarrior82]

Do you think 2 years will be any better?

Anytime is better than in the middle of a bloody pandemic.

 

[Phil McGrawhan]

Anytime is better than in the middle of a bloody pandemic.

The AFl is doing the same .
The uncertainty
The diving economy .
So getting a contract now is sensible .
It mightn't be what you thought you'd get ...but things have changed dramatically .
So some certainty is good while things affected by the pandemic ..which is just about everything finally settle down .

 

[Perth Red]

The extra 2 years hopefully allows the market to pickup. Better that than no money. Lets say $1b over 5 years is still a good deal especially in this climate

the current deal doesn’t run out for another 2.5 years. Sport will continue to be the most valuable asset for tv. $200mill a year for 5 years is a terrible deal! Nrl could get more than that broadcasting itself with fta picking up 3 games.

 

[Perth Red]

Do we need the bunker in its current form and digitally could be done better

Digital revenue is going up every year and last year sat at $27mill, why would you cut a money making part of the business?

unless we are getting rid of vr all together, and then we’d have to pay for 16 extra officials, then the bunker has to stay, we dont want to go back to the farce of pre bunker games do we?

only obvious place for a potential cut is to go back to one ref but that probably only saves around $1.5mill a year tops which is chump change for a $520mill business.

 

[Perth Red]

The AFl is doing the same .
The uncertainty
The diving economy .
So getting a contract now is sensible .
It mightn't be what you thought you'd get ...but things have changed dramatically .
So some certainty is good while things affected by the pandemic ..which is just about everything finally settle down .

they said the same about the gfc, decades to recover, another depression looming, guess what couple of years later the world had righted itself.

 

[Diesel]

I haven’t read the article but are they selling digital rights or just FTA/STV?

 

[franklin2323]

the current deal doesn’t run out for another 2.5 years. Sport will continue to be the most valuable asset for tv. $200mill a year for 5 years is a terrible deal! Nrl could get more than that broadcasting itself with fta picking up 3 games.

Do you want to go into the final year of the deal without the rights locked in?
Given the estimate is 12-18 years with some restrictions the advertising dollar won’t be there

 

[franklin2323]

Digital revenue is going up every year and last year sat at $27mill, why would you cut a money making part of the business?

unless we are getting rid of vr all together, and then we’d have to pay for 16 extra officials, then the bunker has to stay, we dont want to go back to the farce of pre bunker games do we?

only obvious place for a potential cut is to go back to one ref but that probably only saves around $1.5mill a year tops which is chump change for a $520mill business.

As long as there is content the revenue will be there. The clubs produce content anyway no reason that can’t be put in place of the content NRL themselves produce.

Pre bunker days refs would back up and do multiple games. Compare that to the 3 in the bunker each game now

 

[franklin2323]

Anytime is better than in the middle of a bloody pandemic.

Unemployment is now under 6%. Tipped to rise to 10% that will make advertising dollars harder to come by.
The extra bonuses from the government end in June which means people will spend less.

V8 supercar major sponsor likely going broke.
State of Origin sponsor won’t exist next year
Bulldogs no major sponsor

So no guarantee it will get better

 

[taipan]

in that $500k a day sits
Refs
Bunker
Club travel and accomodation
Integrity unit
Insurance
NRLHQ admin such as corporate, finance, hr, office rental etc ($54.8k a day)
The bulk of that $500k is money the game spends on raising non media revenue putting on big events, attracting corporate sponsors and digital platform

so what would you be cutting as you seem to think something in there is bloated?

I have a fair idea of the makeup.It's the individual costs where one needs to see areas of cost cutting.

I'd do away with the bunker for starters.Just the video ref.

If V'Landys believes there can be cuts in H/O I'll go along with that.Execs cannot expect the same salaries down the road.The figure of cash supposedly on hand $129m ended up being $70m.Go figure

Have one ref not two.

Clubs in many cases have had to pay for their own travel to regionals.

The bulk of the money ,I doubt it, thats why i want a break up of the actual costs.
Of course there are essentials that cannot be cut

Funny in the past when I've brought up cost increases at the time there has been a big increase in. revenue, you go on about the code should have a lot more behind them.

I've mentioned insurance and other increases that go up when revenue has also gone up ,that's inflation for you.

WE are going to have our revenue cut with the new cH9/Foxtel deals, and when sponsorships are up for renewal, what do you suggest we do, live like there's no tomorrow?

 

[taipan]

haha do you honestly think that giving clubs more money will actually work? The past 25 years says it won’t. They have received more money now than ever before and still expect more.

not sure about Greenberg being to tied to clubs..... that was the reason he got arsed!! He actually realized that once you become a ceo you have to actually look after the whole game not just clubs that are mostly reckless.

Giving them more money? Who said ,in fact it's the same grant. If it were up to me ,I'd shave at least $500k per club off the grant.That figure was screwed out of a former Chairman.
Agree clubs are their own worst enemies and that's why Greenberg was too close to them ,and people suggesting Gould as the new CEO who spends like he's printing money are deluded.

Clubs have relied on poker machine profits ,now H/O handouts for ages, their experience in getting off the a*ses and securing many sponsors and memberships leaves a lot to be desired.That's why the next CEO should be someone who is commercially professional.

Well the Warriors of late weren't looked after.And money that was promised to the clubs for this virus period was shortchanged and subsequently adjusted by V'Landys.
Brandy Alexander (involved with juniors) just openly stated the juniors' participation position is exaggerated by H/O,The numbers are not increasing ,but inflated by female and touch participation.So it looks like that section was overlooked by the CEO.
Look I had a lot of time initially for Greenberg, he held up well with all the offield incidents, he was a good communicator when fronting the media.Yet I thought we had well over $100m in the Bank, we didn't.The early Barba problems at the Bulldogs left me scratching my head.

 

[taipan]

they said the same about the gfc, decades to recover, another depression looming, guess what couple of years later the world had righted itself.

With due respects, this current fiasco /disaster makes the GFC look like a Sunday picnic,Bloody oil is now in negative value, which is going to have a real negative for the world's share markets.
Oh and 2.5m have been infected and over 170LK died.
The depression years did not have the technology of today that takes jobs like a kid in a lolly shop.You think Virgin if they come back, are going to have 10,000 employees?
How many people did the GFC throw out of work compared to today?

We can't even tell what's going to happen in 6 months let alone 4 years.

Tv stations are also in deep trouble,I'd hate to be Raelene Castle trying to get a deal.
We'll get a reduced deal no question, but so will every one else.Execs and players will have to lower their limits on future deals.


The AFL had Virgin as a major sponsor ,also Collingwood, the Suns and GWS.And the AFL have lost Beteasy.

 

[Perth Red]

Do you want to go into the final year of the deal without the rights locked in?
Given the estimate is 12-18 years with some restrictions the advertising dollar won’t be there

I dont see the any need to rush it when your in a position of weakness and your purchaser is equally concerned about their own viability. That’s just a recipe for selling unders.
Get this year out of way with a compromise lower price for whatever season we run. Get back to normal next year and start negotiating mid year with a deal done when origin is rating its arse off and the games back to normal, with still a year up your sleeve.

Do you really think next year no fta channel and fox are suddenly not going to want the countries biggest rating sport?

 

[Perth Red]

I have a fair idea of the makeup.It's the individual costs where one needs to see areas of cost cutting.

I'd do away with the bunker for starters.Just the video ref.

If V'Landys believes there can be cuts in H/O I'll go along with that.Execs cannot expect the same salaries down the road.The figure of cash supposedly on hand $129m ended up being $70m.Go figure

Have one ref not two.

Clubs in many cases have had to pay for their own travel to regionals.

The bulk of the money ,I doubt it, thats why i want a break up of the actual costs.
Of course there are essentials that cannot be cut

Funny in the past when I've brought up cost increases at the time there has been a big increase in. revenue, you go on about the code should have a lot more behind them.

I've mentioned insurance and other increases that go up when revenue has also gone up ,that's inflation for you.

WE are going to have our revenue cut with the new cH9/Foxtel deals, and when sponsorships are up for renewal, what do you suggest we do, live like there's no tomorrow?

what I suggest we do is stop pandering to the players and clubs and set spending there at a more realistic level with much greater controls to force viability. Players got a massive pay rise, then wanted the nrl to also create a hardship fund, a super fund and greater insurance policies plus a significant contribution to the RLPA event year.
I’d also look at what all the state spending is going to, afl have hardly any funding going to their heartland states yet we are spending around $40mill a year on nswrl and qrl. I’d also review the touch footy cost, no one has ever said what that is costing the game but I’m not sure there is much tangible benefit in reality?
I would not be cutting areas that generate a lot more revenue than they cost and I would not be employing monkeys in exec positions just to save a few dollars to make the likes of Kent and Gould happy.

 

[franklin2323]

I dont see the any need to rush it when your in a position of weakness and your purchaser is equally concerned about their own viability. That’s just a recipe for selling unders.
Get this year out of way with a compromise lower price for whatever season we run. Get back to normal next year and start negotiating mid year with a deal done when origin is rating its arse off and the games back to normal, with still a year up your sleeve.

Do you really think next year no fta channel and fox are suddenly not going to want the countries biggest rating sport?

Wanting RL and affording RL is different. Less money in is less to spend

 

[Perth Red]

With due respects, this current fiasco /disaster makes the GFC look like a Sunday picnic,Bloody oil is now in negative value, which is going to have a real negative for the world's share markets.
Oh and 2.5m have been infected and over 170LK died.
The depression years did not have the technology of today that takes jobs like a kid in a lolly shop.You think Virgin if they come back, are going to have 10,000 employees?
How many people did the GFC throw out of work compared to today?

estimates range from 5mill-25mill so take your pick.
An estimated 22million lost their jobs in the gfc period.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/19/nea...-be-lost-globally-due-to-the-coronavirus.html

 

[Perth Red]

Wanting RL and affording RL is different. Less money in is less to spend

that’s true but is it likely to be any worse scenario for them next year than now? Worse case we get the same offer as we’d get now. Best case the value of the game is seen and the economy isnt the disaster it might have been and the offer is much higher.

We keep hearing the games got millions of fans, the nrl would only need to get 400k to subscribe to its streaming service at $30 month and sell the fta rights for half the current deal and it would still be $50-100mill better off than your suggestion they should sell for $200mill a year!

why do Ch9 and fox want the extension now? Because they know if it goes to an open tender next year they’ll have to pay a lot more. We arent a charity, they’ve screwed us enough over the years, payback is a bitch!

 

[franklin2323]

that’s true but is it likely to be any worse scenario for them next year than now? Worse case we get the same offer as we’d get now. Best case the value of the game is seen and the economy isnt the disaster it might have been and the offer is much higher.

We keep hearing the games got millions of fans, the nrl would only need to get 400k to subscribe to its streaming service at $30 month and sell the fta rights for half the current deal and it would still be $50-100mill better off than your suggestion they should sell for $200mill a year!

why do Ch9 and fox want the extension now? Because they know if it goes to an open tender next year they’ll have to pay a lot more. We arent a charity, they’ve screwed us enough over the years, payback is a bitch!

No way is a FTA network paying $130m a season for sport in this climate.

No doubt they want it to be less on a per year deal then now BUT doesn’t mean it is a bad deal for NRL. Proof will be in the details