Next TV rights deal

[Perth Red]

Weren't you the one falling for Rothfield's bullshit the other week before the 9 deal was signed & getting angry/whinging that expansion wasn't even discussed? You were totally incredulous when I said it was otherwise. Oh well.

I'll believe it when Dave Smith stands in front of a camera and announces two new clubs are entering the competition. I'm still 99% convinced they will once again blame TV's lack of interest/exisiting clubs failings/lack of talent/or one of numerous other excuses to sit on their hands and do nothing whilst feeding us a line that it will be reviewed in X amount of time.

I'll be very happy to be proven wrong but having had 6 years of Gallop feeding us BS then 2 years of Smith & Grant doing the same my faith is somewhat exhausted!

 

[Perth Red]

Does Shane Richardsons report now become redundant that the new TV deal with FTA has been signed? Not only was it expansion, but also rounds played, junior comps etc

haha you really thiunk the NRL was going come up with some long term strategic whole of game expansion review? lol

We were told 2 1/2 years ago that they were doing a whole of game grass roots review which would have major positive outcomes for affiliated states growth. What did it produce? More money to NSWRL and QRL, a end of season title match between QRL and NSWRL cup winners and new logos for the affiliated states. wow.

 

[undertaker]

If they don't pony up, Fox are completley f**ked.

It's as simple as that.

Quite apt, since when doing his Bunji impersonation a few weeks ago on The Footy Show, Beau Ryan referred to Fox and "Fux Sports".

Sounds awesome on paper, if Smith & co can pull it off in reality then he's the best administration in rugby league history. It's about time News Limited pay up to rugby league for all there time undermining and underselling throughout there tenure. The constant conflict of interest which hurt the code for so long.

This, going back to when David "the great leader of our times" Gallop was CEO.

Weren't you the one falling for Rothfield's bullshit the other week before the 9 deal was signed & getting angry/whinging that expansion wasn't even discussed? You were totally incredulous when I said it was otherwise. Oh well.

Yes, the dropkick indeed was.:lol:

I hear Murdoch's so pissed off he's going to set a bag of shit on fire on Dave Smith's front porch.

Like Jeremy, anyone with the name Rupert cannot be taken seriously:lol:

Can you conceive of Fox surviving without NRL?

They are already doing it tough...

Well, sucked in to them

I have no love for Murdoch and his business methods, but he didn't build a global empire by picking duds like Union.

:lol:

This.

And yet the Union dropkicks over at greenandgold think their tv deal is great, just because it's in US dollars:lol:

Mnf is scrapped for now, but if fox offers a shit load of money for 2 extra teams in new markets and to bring back mnf, then surely the nrl would at least listen to them right? Purely a hypothetical of cause

One thing from the above is certain, while there are games on Thursdays, there won't be Monday Night Football

This, and even if the comp expands to 18 teams, that 9th game won't be Monday Night Football. 5 day rounds throughout the season are out of the equation

And Thank God for that! MNF was a completely crowd killer, and you can thank David "the great leader of our times" Gallop for giving Fox that match on a silver platter.

 

[Johnny88]

This is a very curious insight, could you elaborate any further?

During Not the nrl news segment at the end the voice over guy said something like yes I know its not entertaining this week but what do you expect when we aren't allowed to mention the rights deal. Matty laughed then said yes don't mention the rights deal with a big smirk and giggle fade to ad break.

Very funny gee I wouldn't want to be the guys that botched this up.

 

[undertaker]

Fox have been given RL for a bargain in the past.

This is their time to pay up otherwise Netflix here we come.

THIS.

It's often touted by many on this forum how good Fox's coverage is. The only two things they offer over Ch9 besides their "five live games per round" boast is HD coverage and no ads during play, but after than that, that's where things end. Regarding their overall RL coverage during the week, the standard of most of their RL programs are below par, only a moron could get excited watching Ben 'I'm trying to imitate Milhouse' raised eyebrows from The Simpsons' Ikin and Paul Kent three times a week on NRL360 (with pretty much the same guests), not to mention Matt Johns having two shows a week with JAIIIIIIIIIME ROGERS, Fletch and Hindy is overkill, and producers have completely botched up Sterlo's show (not just the couch format, but having meatheads like Mason, Tallis and James Hooper as regulars. You know you're really scraping the bottom of the barrel in a situation like that, surely there's so much bigger fish in the sea a.l.a RL ppl in the media to choose from). I do miss the old NRL on Fox show, especially in 2012 before the whole revamp of their NRL programming. The Controversy Corner-type segment worked very well when it was extended from 5mins on Matt Johns Ch7 show in 2010 to nearly 15mins on Fox's 2012 show.

Regarding the financial side of things, yes Ch9 grossly underpaid for the 2007-12 rights (which gave AFL the upper hand over us) and they have been no saints in the past in that regard, but Fox have also got away with underpaying in the past due to the first-and-last rights clause and furthermore having no PayTV competition after they got the exclusive PayTV rights in 2001 (before that, Optus also televised matches during 1996-2000). Removal of first-and-last rights clause was undoubtedly one of the biggest, most important decisions that were made at ARLC headquarters in regards to maximising the tv rights value in years to come. Although not ideal in many ways despite the massive increase in tv rights, we had to accept the conditions of the 2013-17 tv rights in order for the ARLC to have the negotiating power they now have been able to exercise.

 

[applesauce]

Surprised they didn't go to market if true? Maybe they thought the Nine offer couldn't be bettered? Going to need a good sales pitch from the NRL to get Fox to stump up $500mill plus imo. Loss of Super Saturday exclusivity and Monday night is massive for them.

Seven were never going to go that hard, and if the NRL waited a 10/FOX merger would not of seen the NRL get anywhere near even $1.5billion as CH9 were never going to buy all games. A 10/FOX merger removes the competitive tension from the PTV portion as FOX wouldn't of partnered with any other FTA network.

Now the NRL have made a huge chunk of the deal and have 2 years to make FOX sweat it out and hope another entity doesn't blow into town. Like others have said, although unlikely, the NRL can sell the rest of the games for $300million and still see a significant increase in TV $, control of the schedule and greater FTA coverage while also crippling FOX (I say crippling because NEWS Corp wouldn't let Foxtel ever die). We would then see FOX in 2022 pay above and beyond to get the NRL rights back. That is the doomsday scenario for FOX that the NRL will be using as leverage for the next 30 months.

 

[undertaker]

I'll be very happy to be proven wrong but having had 6 years of Gallop feeding us BS then 2 years of Smith & Grant doing the same my faith is somewhat exhausted!

Your faith is somewhat exhausted? Why don't you watch some AFL or Shute Shield Rugby this Saturday to cheer you up?:lol:

 

[Perth Red]

Your faith is somewhat exhausted? Why don't you watch some AFL or Shute Shield Rugby this Saturday to cheer you up?:lol:

Top of the table clash in afl and Targa rally, going to be a massive sports weekend in Perth. Thanks for the tip.

 

[nrlnrl]

Yeah. Balanced, fair, impartial, no conflict of interest :lol:

That's absolutely true, but the SMH article was pure gloating too. It'll be interesting to see what angle the News Ltd papers take through their print & on-line outlets as the remainder of the deal remains unknown / uncertain.

 

[nrlnrl]

Live and in HD on GEM since 2013 (or even 2012??)




Basically you are saying that the NRL will acquiesce to 9's demands on TV scheduling.

I don't see why they would. They have the money in the bank now, and the clubs will have to sign off any schedule.

9 should have input but no final say in any schedule.

So you don't think there will be a Broncos game regularly on a Thursday or Friday night from 2018 onwards ? Also, the popular ( and successful from 2018 to 2022 ) Sydney teams will dominate the remaining timeslots. Do people honestly believe they will see more than a few games featuring the Raiders, Warriors, Titans or the teams who are struggling in 3 years time on Channel 9 ?

I don't know anywhere near as much about the financial dealings, ratings & other information involved in broadcasting sport as all of the experts on this forum, but expect t see plenty of Broncos games on Thursday or Friday nights.

 

[flippikat]

Would be the ultimate irony if Fox ended up bank rolling two expansion clubs in Perth and Brisbane given the Superleague war and their role in closing down the Reds and Crushers!!

That's *exactly* what I was thinking.

In the long run, the post-Superleague rationalization of the competition did the game the most harm, because it was rushed and sacrificed clubs that could've unlocked great value for tv.. to see the guys that were so hellbent on cutting teams snookered into pleading for expansion... and being desperate enough to pay for it... well, ain't it sweet?

 

[Canard]

So you don't think there will be a Broncos game regularly on a Thursday or Friday night from 2018 onwards ? Also, the popular ( and successful from 2018 to 2022 ) Sydney teams will dominate the remaining timeslots. Do people honestly believe they will see more than a few games featuring the Raiders, Warriors, Titans or the teams who are struggling in 3 years time on Channel 9 ?

I don't know anywhere near as much about the financial dealings, ratings & other information involved in broadcasting sport as all of the experts on this forum, but expect t see plenty of Broncos games on Thursday or Friday nights.

Why though? There is nothing in that for the NRL or the clubs. The clubs will have a say in the scheduling.

The Saturday night timeslot for example will be a boon for the Cowboys. This gives us the opportunity to have more than 3 live games a year on FTA and nationwide exposure. (Not just because we happen to play the Broncos we get on TV)

As for FOX funding expansion teams? For mine it's seems unlikely and unwanted.

60M or so just to get an extra game which isn't guaranteed after 4 years? Plus we don't want them owning the game.

I'd rather expansion happen the traditional way and FOX stump up the broadcast money

 

[flippikat]

As for FOX funding expansion teams? For mine it's seems unlikely and unwanted.

60M or so just to get an extra game which isn't guaranteed after 4 years? Plus we don't want them owning the game.

I'd rather expansion happen the traditional way and FOX stump up the broadcast money

I think this Fox-funded expansion idea is a ploy by the NRL to satisfy the other 16 clubs - who are concerned that teams 17 and 18 result in the existing clubs getting a reduced grant.

If Fox provides the funding for the first 4 years as the expansion teams get established, by the time the next deal is negotiated (for early-mid 2020s), I think the NRL would expect all clubs to be meeting KPIs and not sweating on the grants so much.

 

[FlameThrower]

Well Rupert and Smith had lunch in Sydney...wonder what they chatted about....don't disregard what can be started over a meal and wine, then pass it to lawyers to draft it up....Fox can't be left out in the cold. The expansion idea sounds great to me, we've been crying out for it. Plenty NRL players in ESL and those skipping to Rugby who would make up the numbers? And the huge talent pool in the Pacific Islands?

 

[Bgoodorgoodatit]

This is a very curious insight, could you elaborate any further?

They directly mentioned it twice actually... once in 'not the NRL news' where they said something alone the lines of 'slow news week since we are not allowed to talk about the rights'

Second time was in when Fletch and Hindy interviewed Brandy and Sterlo. first question they said they wanted to talk about the elephant in the room then they had a graphic of an elephant come up and that was the end of it.

they were the other obvious ones but there were numerous other intimations. snickers when they mentioned channel 9, jobs status jokes etc etc

 

[tumbidragon]

Gold. Rugby league news show, refusing to talk about the biggest news in RL this year because limited news has a bruised ego... Very professional.

 

[Rosetta]

Paul Kent was so salty on radio this morning about his beloved Fox being left out in the cold, claimed the total will be flat out topping $1.5 billion now.

LMAO.

It's very simply Paul, Fox either stumps up the $200 million/season for the 8 match simulcast or you'll be getting duck egg. Streaming services will be far more accessible in 2018 and a plethora of companies would love to have the major sporting code of the east coast as a sale point, there will be no cheap escape for your beloved Fox.

 

[LeagueXIII]

Also noticed on the Back Page show on Tuesday no mention of the rights, which was the biggest league story of that day.

 

[Sleep]

Paul Kent was so salty on radio this morning about his beloved Fox being left out in the cold, claimed the total will be flat out topping $1.5 billion now.

LMAO.

It's very simply Paul, Fox either stumps up the $200 million/season for the 8 match simulcast or you'll be getting duck egg. Streaming services will be far more accessible in 2018 and a plethora of companies would love to have the major sporting code of the east coast as a sale point, there will be no cheap escape for your beloved Fox.

All I want is the streaming option ala NBA League Pass/NFL Game Pass. The NRL app streaming is awful as is.

 

[Perth Red]

I think this Fox-funded expansion idea is a ploy by the NRL to satisfy the other 16 clubs - who are concerned that teams 17 and 18 result in the existing clubs getting a reduced grant.

If Fox provides the funding for the first 4 years as the expansion teams get established, by the time the next deal is negotiated (for early-mid 2020s), I think the NRL would expect all clubs to be meeting KPIs and not sweating on the grants so much.

It's not that nrl will ask fox to own or pay for the expansion teams, more that they will have worked out the cost of a ninth game and be telling fox if you want a majority exclusive 5 games it will cost you X$ more for the ninth game. This x$ is the cost of the two expansion teams, officials etc needed to bring in two new teams.

Sucks that we don't have a long term plan for growth and expansion for the good of the game and still reliant on the whims of TV companies to dictate if and how our game grows, but that's RL for you!