Give it a rest, nothing to do with a Perth team. I am resigned to the fact we aren't getting a team anytime in the next 5 years at least in all likelihood and what ever I post on a message board isnt going to make a blind bit of difference to Perth getting a team lol
Why not contribute something useful to the discussion, do you think we should be expecting the NRL to get the same or better money from Australian media for NRL as afl gets?
I think you're massively under estimating the value of those breaks in the AFL and its 3 hour run time... over the course of 200+ games that's a massive flood of advertising opportunities that the NRL just doesn't have.
The NRL definitely has better big event matches, but as a product to sell advertising space it just doesn't come near the AFL on aggregate.
I am not too worried about Smith and the NRL. There's oodles of time and it's all for Fox to lose.
Answers your question to me pretty well I think.
The opportunity for ads in their matches mean there is more opportunity for the broadcaster to recoup more dollars from sponsors, as well as promoting more of their other shows.
Whereas for Fox, they don't have ad breaks in the matches. They clearly see the value in AFL as a way of getting new subscribers in the southern states, as the number there are relatively low. So they only need content. Soon Fox will have the same amount of NRL content as they do AFL, except the matches will be 3 hours as opposed to 2, plus a 9th game. (if Fox pay up an amount that the NRL think is enough to justify expansion for a ninth game, beauty. If not, so be it. The people in those positions know more about the situation than I do to criticize it too much)
The NRL and AFL are in opposite positions for Fox. Fox need to invest in AFL as a way of getting more subscribers in the southern states. (which is much lower than in the northern states). The AFL know this and is why they've done a deal directly with News and News saying they are going to be doing a massive push of AFL in their media. I guarantee you they're not going to be saying "head to this weeks game at the MCG" or "watch it live on 7", they'll be saying "watch every game on Foxtel. Sign up now."
Fox need to invest in the NRL in order to keep their core subscribers in the northern states. We're not an investment for them, we're their main money maker. Of course they're bitter. We're essentially threatening to take a shit load of their money away if they don't pay up. They think if they talk the game down, they'll get the rights cheaper.
They see AFL as an opportunity to grow and gain new subscriptions and they see the NRL as a greedy house wife demanding more spending money.
What do I think is an acceptable deal? I don't know. Around $2 billion I guess? I like the deal done with 9 already and from where the deal looks like it might finish, it looks good to me.
I'm also not naive enough to think that past status quo has no bearing on current negotiations. Our rights haven't been sold for what they're truly worth since the early 90's I believe for one reason or another (cue photo of Gallop). So broadcast partners are going to use that as it's convenient for them to paint the game that way so that they can get a cheaper deal.
