Next TV rights deal part 2

[axl rose]

Would be hilarious is News lost the NRL rights to Optus after spending a billion on the Super League shamozzle. (they did of course recoup alot of that through underselling the rights to themselves for a decade) the 'breakdown' response from bourbon and slothfeild would be worth it alone.

 

[DiegoNT]

Can't help but laugh at the soccer fans who genuinely belive foxtel will lose 60-70% of their customers now that the epl is gone. While it's a decent chunk of subscribers lost it'll only be a fraction of what foxtel are set to lose if they don't give the nrl what it's worth

 

[Phil McGrawhan]

I hope Sameuls & co sit at the negotiating table & say
You gifted the AFL an extra $300,000,000
You can do the same for us .
Pay up or sink like the titanic

 

[Last Week]

Colin Smith does have a point, production costs are pretty pricey. But, if Optus got the NRL, it would be the only thing they would have to produce. Compare that to what Fox need to produce? Super Rugby, 5 AFL matches, Netball, some A League, etc etc.

So yes, Optus would have to outlay a fair bit to produce 4 or 5 NRL matches a week, but, that's less than a quarter of the remaining sports that Fox have to produce.

And then after working out how to profit from NRL matches, Optus would be able to expand its production abilities and could bid for other Australian sporting competitions.

This is the most competition Fox have had since C7.

Fox will still get the rights for the NRL. Don't fool yourselves into thinking otherwise. But they are going to pay the price for it.

They have to. Think of this. Why do most people have Foxtel?

The documentaries and music channels? They're a bonus. YouTube is just as good a source for them.

Movies? Netflix and similar services will take care of that. Besides, a majority of the movies you'd watch on Foxtel aren't ones you'd pay a great deal to watch. The good ones you'd see at the movies or most likely buy or download. Again, these are a bonus.

TV shows? With the rise of Netflix and the like, having Foxtel for TV shows is getting less and less appealing. Another bonus.

All of these things combined are perhaps somewhat tempting, but $100ish a month? No way in the world. Add on exclusive local sport content, then things look a bit different. This is essentially part of the halo effect. (There is American sports, but ESPN is available on Fetch TV too.)

Now, seeing as the majority of Foxtels subscribers live in NSW and Qld, they will need the local sport to sway things to their favour. The NRL is their money maker. They and others will say that Foxtel make profits from other sports and content, which is true. But go back to that halo effect, there isn't really anything on Foxtel for the people in NSW and Qld to that they couldn't get from other cheaper sources.

They will lose a big amount of subscribers if they lose the NRL. Not all people who watch NRL, but a large amount. This in turn will mean all other shows on their service will have less viewers. It will also mean less money from subscriptions, which in turn means, less money to bid on other content. Foxtel would most likely survive this, but at a massive cost. Much more than a measly few billion that they could have just paid to the ARLC...

I hope the EPL is just the tip of the ice berg for Fox. Losing a couple of ESPN, WWE, A League, etc etc would really damage them. I doubt it will happen, but I'd love to see them die.

 

[Last Week]

Also, I know he didn't do this alone but he did over see all this, but David f**king Smith is a f**king God compared to every other Rugby League administrator ever. Can we keep him? He's foreseen Alot of this and I dare say he's done a heap more beneficial things we haven't even picked up on yet.

 

[Perth Red]

I can see Telstra being far more concerned than fox. Highly unlikely Optus will fork out the cost and production costs for exclusive coverage. I could see Optus going after super league and even French rugby league as well as the digital rights and international games. They could then sell a very tempting rugby league pack with no production costs.

 

[axl rose]

Fox will still get the rights for the NRL. Don't fool yourselves into thinking otherwise. But they are going to pay the price for it.

Only another option for Rupert is a rebel league, take 2. Hypothetically it would be hard to see him getting enough teams to tag along with the News Ltd owned Broncos to form a comp.

It really made no sense for News Ltd to relinquish control and give League its independence via the commission (im sure they did so out of the goodness of their news corp hearts). With muppets like Gallop in place they could potentially have undersold the rights to themselves for another 50 years. Then they lost the first and last rights as well. Ouch.

Rupes is losing his grip.

 

[bobmar28]

How does FetchTV work?

It comes with the Optus broadband service. You get a modem which connects to a Fetch TV box.

 

[bobmar28]

$399 for a Fetch TV Set Top Box will be a issue

Ours was free.

 

[taipan]

David Smith & Co look to be coming out of this smelling like roses.
By contrast News and their pack of paid hyenas who dumped mercilessly on Smith,smell like nothing more than a f*rt in a packed lift.Meaning everyone in a rush to get the hell out of there.

 

[tumbidragon]

No because he said Benji barba that one time and he didn't play the game. Worst. CEO. Ever!
The majority of mong league fans won't know how good he was until after the fact. Just look at all the comments by fans throughout social media after he left..

 

[chigurh]

The majority of fans are idiots. I just laugh when I hear people say 'the game needs to listen to the fans.'

Can only hope that Grants comments are true, and Smith has left the games finances/structures in such a healthy position that they are now able to focus on the football side of things - whatever that entails.

 

[Pig Champion]

I'm on a 2 year contract with foxtel, not sure how binding it is financially, but the beauty is, it runs out before the NRL contract does.

If the NRL is gone I'll be joining a massive exodus.

 

[docbrown]

This was a legitimate scenario all along so I don't know why everyone's so surprised about it. Anybody who has been paying attention to the market place knows that Optus were looking to rebuild their media platform. I've lost count of how many times I've said it on here.

I still think Foxtel have the edge but it's competitive tension that drives up the price and the NRL have known that from the start.

Remember - the NRL doesn't actually need Optus to be physically capable of doing this. They may or may not be able to. But it is the mere perception that they can and the risk aversion Foxtel takes to avoid it that generates the premium.

EPL has a decent support base here for the economics to make sense. As for simply buying up Super League, heck even MLB, NHL etc -- the foreign sports they purchase have to have a significant fan base here for big dollars to be splashed and for it to pay off in subscriber growth.

History has shown it's a struggle to build this kind of subscription base by simply combining a hodgepodge of fractured demos. That's precisely why Foxtel is anchored by NRL & AFL coverage and its bigger local market.

I genuinely believe and have all along that Optus are a legitimate competitor in this round of negotiations.

As for production costs - they can minimise it by taking 9 & Sky unfiltered feeds. The other 3-5 matches a round yes there's a cost but it's not astronomical. I mean remember - they used to film rugby league with one camera and no editing suite back in the day. Every level of production quality has a price and Optus would simply find one that fits their budget model. The ancillaries cost next to nothing especially if talent doubles up on duties, it's really the back of house end. I mean - what's stopping Optus from hiring the 9 production house to cover those other games? They've already got the infrastructure.

All I'm saying is people need to stop looking at these things with a dismissive "no it's impossible" attitude.

 

[RL The greatest game]

And that's just from the epl fans!
Imagine if they lose the nrl

Its easy for uncle Rupert to keep the NRL on fox. All he has to do is pay us our worth and by the Rupert we are worth more than fumbleball.
Come on uncle splash the cash

 

[Nerd]

As for production costs - they can minimise it by taking 9 & Sky unfiltered feeds. The other 3-5 matches a round yes there's a cost but it's not astronomical. I mean remember - they used to film rugby league with one camera and no editing suite back in the day. Every level of production quality has a price and Optus would simply find one that fits their budget model. The ancillaries cost next to nothing especially if talent doubles up on duties, it's really the back of house end. I mean - what's stopping Optus from hiring the 9 production house to cover those other games? They've already got the infrastructure.

All I'm saying is people need to stop looking at these things with a dismissive "no it's impossible" attitude.

I agree with the Doc. When the cost of production was brought up as a barrier to Optus going for the Pay TV rights what is to stop Optus from leasing out the already existing production infrastructure of Nine. I'm sure Nine wouldn't mind offsetting some of their production costs and may even turn a small profit on the exercise.

 

[DiegoNT]

Would it be worth going to optus for less money?
With the epl and champions league gone most soccer fans will drop foxtel.
Without nrl foxtel is in serious trouble, so if we jump ship we'd leave afl, the a-league and super rugby on a sinking ship

 

[undertaker]

And that's just from the epl fans!
Imagine if they lose the nrl

Catch all the action here:

https://www.facebook.com/FOXFootball/posts_to_page/

 

[undertaker]

Let's not forget the cricket as well...

I believe Fox Sports no longer broadcasts any cricket matches in Australia: lost the rights to the One-Day domestic cup (to GEM), no longer broadcasts the Sheffield Shield final, but most importantly their two biggest money earners: Big Bash (to Ch10) and 2015/2019 Ashes tours (to GEM). The only cricket they have now is matches that are played outside of Australia (excluding the Ashes)

And I wouldn't be upset one iota if Foxtel lost the NRL rights and went belly up, after how News Ltd have screwed the game for the past 20 years. Uncle Rupert can have the AFL and smooch Jerry Hall all he wants, he still thinks he'll score a point just for the effort alone!

Even after leaving the NRL, David Smith's genius is growing by the day. Morons like East Coast Tiger would still prefer the likes of David ahhhhhhhhhhhhm Gallop running the game.

 

[undertaker]

Those EPL fans who cancel their Fox subscriptions means that the A-League will suffer as a consequence. The A-League's already abysmal tv ratings are just about to get a whole lot worse. No way will soccer fans want to keep Fox just to watch a substandard level of sport.

Suck on that one, Gallop!