NRL clubs threaten breakaway over TV deal
THE AUSTRALIAN NOVEMBER 19, 2015 12:00AM
Darren Davidson
Rugby league clubs have expressed mounting frustration and disbelief that the Rugby League Commission has not cut a pay-TV deal with Fox Sports in a closed-door meeting at League Central.
Club chairmen yesterday floated the idea of a breakaway 12-team competition at a high-level summit in Sydney amid angry mutterings about commission chairman John Grant’s “courtship” of telco Optus, which has expressed interest in buying the rights.
They are furious at Mr Grant for putting at jeopardy a $1.8 billion deal by encouraging Optus to table an offer while dragging out a new round of talks with Fox Sports and Telstra, which came close to clinching a new contract two weeks ago.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one club chairman said they refused to sign their participation agreements until a pay-TV broadcasting rights deal was clinched.
“There is a massive amount of frustration among the clubs. They were told the week before last that a deal was as good as done. They are as angry as a hatful of spiders and muttering again about a breakaway competition,” he said.
Mr Grant is trying to leverage interest from Optus after the Eng*lish Premier League football sold its local broadcast and digital rights to the telco in an estimated $189 million three-year deal — a 215 per cent rise on the value of the previous agreement held by Fox Sports, the sports programming subsidiary of News Corp, publisher of The Australian.
But the deal has frustrated EPL fans because it threatens to force them to sign up to Optus broadband and mobile phone contracts to watch matches via the internet.
National Rugby League club chairmen are worried that any deal with Optus would disadvantage millions of fans living in the bush and those locked into internet contracts with rival telcos amid a consumer backlash from local EPL fans on social media *forums.
“Fox Sports are relatively ready to go with a pretty attractive deal, but the NRL traction is not as quick as it should be,” another club chairman said. “There is no other partner. I would have thought there weren’t too many barriers to a deal. “
Under a breakaway scenario, a new competition would be made up by the 12 clubs, whose NRL participation agreements end at the conclusion of the 2017 season.
NRL fans could get eight live television games under a revamped proposal for Nine Network and Fox Sports. Fox Sports would show every game live — three of them simulcast with Nine — including a proposed new Friday night match at 6pm. The game would replace Monday night football.
