NRL can go global, says Robert Thomson of News Corp
Mr Thomson has laid down a blueprint for an ambitious rugby league global expansion during a closed-door meeting at the offices of Sydney law firm Clayton Utz this week.
While negotiating the NRL’s record $1.8 billion TV deal, the ­native Victorian and Essendon tragic who recently helped clinch the AFL’s historic $2.598bn rights agreement, said he would take the code to a new level by leveraging the pulling power of Mr Murdoch’s newspapers and television networks.
Mr Thomson, who flew into Sydney this week from his New York base to play a key role in the late night talks, issued the clarion call in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday evening at Clayton Utz. Mr Thomson will help the NRL partner with other News Corp companies around the globe to broadcast highlights packages and possibly live matches.
There is a belief the NRL could even stage matches overseas or perhaps move to connect different clubs’ pre-season tours and competitions around the world.
While the staggering size of the new TV deal, which could surpass $2bn once international rights are sold, means there is no economic need to play matches overseas, there is a great deal of enthusiasm for the idea among commissioners and the broadcast partners.
Speaking to
The Weekend Australian after a press conference to unveil the deal, commission chairman John Grant confirmed the strategy was high on his agenda under the 2018-2022 deal, as it represented a “big opportunity”.
“We will go back to Europe where we have a rugby league base to play off. News is very keen on Asia and we’re very keen on the US, which is the 21st Century Fox platform,” Mr Grant said.
“News Corp will use its worldwide resources to take NRL on to the global stage where we believe over time it has incredible appeal and can attract an army of new fans.”
Dubbing the deal a “transformative” moment for Fox Sports, giving fans live coverage of every game in each round and a dedicated NRL channel, Fox Sports chief executive Patrick Delany put his stamp of approval on the plan for global expansion.
“We will see what we can do to very deliberately push NRL on to the digital platforms of our newspaper mastheads and 21st Century Fox’s assets,” Mr Delany said. “There’s plenty of room for growth and expansion of the NRL even in our own country. In New Zealand there’s massive ­potential.”
The $1.8bn deal, flagged by
The Australian, is 70 per cent higher than the last broadcast rights deal. As part of the deal, Telstra Premiership matches will be played five days a week next year — from Thursday to Monday inclusive — before reverting to four days a week (Thursday to Sunday) in 2017. The Nine Network will telecast games live and free to air on Thursday and Friday nights and Sunday afternoon next year. Fox Sports will show all eight games every weekend, including five exclusive telecasts.
Nine’s investment will amount to $625 million for the five-year agreement, News Corp will invest $1bn and Telstra $175m for the digital broadcast rights.
Mr Grant was joined at the press conference by News Corp Australia chief executive Peter Tonagh, Mr Delany, new Nine chief Hugh Marks and Telstra chief Andrew Penn.
It was a different picture from when former NRL chief executive Dave Smith announced a $925m deal by himself in August.
That decision placed the talks with Fox Sports in jeopardy until Mr Smith announced his resignation two months after signing the contract. A four-month stand-off ended this week following a decisive intervention by former News Corp Australia chief Julian Clarke to bring all the parties to the negotiating table.
Mr Marks said the revised broadcast deal hit the “sweet spot” as the additional broadcast partners were likely to put more value back into the agreement.
Mr Tonagh said the deal was “outstanding” and for the first time in the history of the game would give fans live coverage of every game each round.
“It’s a big win for the fans, and a big win for the clubs, and News is delighted to be a part of it,” he said. “The deal affirms Fox Sports as the home of NRL, and the premium destination for sports coverage in Australia.”
Mr Penn said the deal extended the partnership between the telco and the NRL to be one of the longest-running in Australia.
News Corp Australia is the publisher of The Australian.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...son-of-news-corp/story-e6frg6n6-1227626165641