From the
AFR:
NRL needs corporate sector on board
As millions of television viewers and 70,000 attendees watch the first rugby league State of Origin on Wednesday evening, new NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg will also be casting his mind forward to a smaller gathering the next day.
Greenberg and his chairman John Grant will host an intimate lunch with 20 captains of industry in Sydney on Thursday, during which they will break bread with executives from the likes of National Australia Bank, Amcor, Macquarie Group, Oil Search and Primary Health Care.
The previous night's game will obviously be on the agenda, says Greenberg. "It doesn't matter who you are or where you are from, everyone watches Origin."
That certainly is true, given the three-match series now sits among about the five best matches shows on TV annually. But the sport, traditionally and somewhat stereotypically the game of the working classes in NSW and Queensland, is not necessarily cutting through with the top echelon of corporate Australia.
Hence the lunch, one of several Greenberg and Grant have planned as they strive for a closer relationship with the top end of town, an idea born out of numbers that show rugby league to be well behind the AFL in terms of attracting the corporate dollar.
While their respective broadcasting deals are just about the same dollar value at a little more than $200 million annually (both will increase markedly in the next few years after signing new deals last year), the NRL's non-broadcast revenue in 2015 was about $129 million compared to the AFL's $182 million.
"There's no doubt the NRL has to be better at this," Greenberg says. "But we're not going to this to try to sell them something straight way. What we want to do is have a connection with them and make sure that they understand what we are doing."
While he has grappled with the on-going dramas at Parramatta, where poor corporate governance led to salary cap breaches and big fines and looming stripping of the points the team has won on the field this year, player misbehaviour issues and controversial refereeing decisions since being appointed in March, Greenberg is also working on several longer-term business strategies.
A big part of that is working on the NRL's digital strategy, another area it lags behind the AFL. That was borne out in the latest Nielsen digital ratings figures released on Friday that showed the AFL growing its unique monthly audience total in April by 22 per cent from the previous month to 3.9 million, while the NRL rose 13 per cent to 2.1 million.
More eyeballs watching match footage on the internet, reading club news and engaging with the sport via social media means digital subscriptions and advertising as the general public's consumption habits turn increasingly to the online world.
Greenberg says he has a team at NRL headquarters working on how the league can better exploit its digital assets when it gains tighter control of them when the next broadcast deal begins in 2018.
While Telstra will maintain mobile and tablet broadcast rights (Greenberg says phone subscriptions to the NRL package of matches is up more than 90 per cent compared to 2015), the NRL and its 16 clubs will keep revenue from digital advertising and other sources.
One idea that intrigues Greenberg involves the occasionally controversial newly introduced NRL Bunker, the centralised technology centre where referees refer decisions to be scrutinised quickly by a team of adjudicators during matches.
The Bunker uses many different camera angles to make rapid decisions on possible tries and other big moments, and while its decision making hasn't been perfect Greenberg has sensed a digital opportunity. "We've got all this rich vision that goes to the Bunker, which we will own, so we think that could be very useful digitally."
That could mean digital subscribers watching games from different camera angles, choosing from various audio options and manipulating their own replay and highlights packages.
Otherwise, the NRL competition enters a sort of "twilight zone" where intense focus is on Origin for six weeks but normal matches are still played, often by teams missing their star players.
Greenberg, once the CEO of competition powerhouse Canterbury, has some sympathy. "I used to divide the season up into three parts. You'd try to get more home games early, sell some home matches to other regions during Origin, and then back yourself to come home strong after that in the lead up to the finals."
All 16 teams have more than 10,000 members for the first time, and attendances have been boosted as a result. Ratings are also up markedly, including a 77 per cent rise for Fox Sports (it now shows all eight games, including simulcasting three shown by Nine Entertainment Co), but many will struggle for appeal during Origin.
But Greenberg wants standards across the competition to keep lifting, on and off the field. "Parramatta shows how corporate governance is important. The best clubs put the club first, meaning everything, whereas as others talk about the team. But that just means what happens on the field, which is not enough."
