Next TV rights deal

[undertaker]

The NRL would lose out on maybe $100m a season if they call fox' bluff and stream games, but fox would lose five times as much through loss of subscribers and advertising, which ultimately would also mean Kent's job.

Wouldn't that be great

 

[Panfas]

http://www.mediaweek.com.au/foxtel-subscribers-up-under-new-pricing-structure/

Foxtel subscribers up under new pricing structure
13 Aug, 2015
by Mediaweek

Foxtel has welcomed the release by its shareholders (Telstra Corporation and News Corporation) of full year results, which provide evidence that its new pricing and packaging strategy has reignited subscriber growth.

“Last year we took the bold step of changing our pricing model to attract more customers,” said Foxtel CEO, Richard Freudenstein (pictured). “These results demonstrate that was the right call.

“Subscriber numbers grew by 9% or nearly 230,000 driven mainly by takeup of our traditional cable and satellite products. Significant growth continued all the way through the financial year.

“At the same time churn declined by 1.6 percentage points to 10.9%, the lowest recorded since at least 2000. This is a reflection on the quality of programming available to Foxtel customers across all genres, combined with the additional value given to existing customers during the period and the range of price points now available. On average, customers now remain with Foxtel for nine years, an extraordinary period for a discretionary entertainment product,” Freudenstein said.

“The growth in subscribers resulted in an increase in revenue, although this was partially offset by the impact of a soft advertising market. Subscriber revenues were up 2.4%1 – lower than subscriber growth, which is to be expected as we launched in November and therefore most of that increase came in the second half of the year.

“Additional activity driven by the new pricing model, plus initiatives such as iQ3, Presto and triple play and investments in new sports such as Formula 1 and V8 Super Cars, saw EBITDA decline in line with our expectations.

“ARPU has held up very well since the price reduction. Broadcasting ARPU was down by only 2% to $93. This decline was anticipated as part of the pricing changes. It is important to note that the vast majority of new customers took up one or more tiers in addition to the $25 Entertainment pack.

“This is a great result in an increasingly competitive space. It makes it clear that consumers understand the real benefits that only Foxtel can offer,” Freudenstein concluded.

 

[insert.pause]

Check out the Victorian spin, trying to make out Nine are paying less than they are by claiming the 'rebate' Nine get if the NRL grant simulcasting to fox comes out of the cash portion of the deal, when all reports have said it comes from the contra portion, which is $125m, conveniently the same number simulcasting all games has been reported to cost.

lol at Murdoch 'hosting' Gilligan at a high powered business lunch, there was like a thousand guests, including Dave Smith, Gallop & Pulver.

AFL eyes Thursday night showdown with NRL in head-to-head battle for TV ratings
Date
August 13, 2015 - 8:26PM

Caroline Wilson
Chief Football Writer for The Age

Thursday night football will play a pivotal role in the next AFL broadcast deal with the league looking to fixture 12 Thursday night free-to-air games from 2017, throwing a strategic challenge to the football calendar, which it could even bring forward to next season.
The AFL would go head-to-head for at least half of its home-and-away rounds on Thursdays with the NRL, which on Monday stunned the industry when it announced it had reached a four-year agreement from 2018 with the Nine Network worth $925 million.
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan has held talks with media chiefs in Sydney this week with the prevailing view that Channel Nine is no longer a player in the battle for televised Australian rules football unless it negotiates a one-game agreement with another free-to-air network.
The Nine NRL deal is worth close to double the amount Channel Seven is currently paying the AFL. The cash element of the NRL deal, a record for free-to-air rights in Australia, is worth an annual $160 million with Nine receiving a rebate of $25 million a year should it give up its exclusivity and share coverage with a pay broadcaster.
Channel Seven, which continues to push for a twilight grand final, is currently paying the AFL about $90 million a year, not including marketing and advertising money, with McLachlan and his team wanting a significant increase in the next agreement.
Having televised Australian rules football for the best part of 50 years, Seven remains the AFL's most likely major free-to-air broadcast partner. The current most likely scenario would see Seven televise four games each week with permanent Friday and Saturday night slots as well as Sunday afternoon. Seven would also continue to televise public holiday Monday games and Anzac Day. The reduced number of Saturday afternoon games shown by Seven would no longer be televised on delay with the AFL expected to resist a permanent Thursday fixture given the challenge of clubs' and players' demands for six-day breaks.
Last week's meeting of the 18 clubs saw the AFL reinforce its commitment to Thursday night football having abandoned Monday night fixtures.
Five Thursday night games were successfully featured this season with the league suggesting that number could lift slightly in 2016.
McLachlan is leading the AFL negotiations which he plans to finalise before the end of this year. He held talks this week with Seven Network bosses and met Nine chief David Gyngell on the morning of the NRL announcement.
News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch, whose pay TV broadcaster Fox Sports has yet to reach a deal with the NRL, hosted McLachlan at a high-powered business lunch on Tuesday.
Fairfax Media understands McLachlan has remained resistant to the push for a twilight grand final from 2017 despite opening the door to the concept in February after attending the 2015 NFL Super Bowl. The Seven Network, which wants to continue its four-games-a-week deal,wants to push back the grand final start time to 5pm.
Media observers remain in the dark as to why NRL boss Dave Smith announced the rugby league free-to-air rights before having reached a deal with Fox Sports provoking speculation outside bidders such as Netflix or Google could be involved in negotiations. Fox Sports remained a big supporter of Monday night NRL, which has been abandoned from 2018.
The NRL has also moved to mirror the AFL in taking control of its fixture for the next media agreement having previously been beholden to television to select feature games.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/afl/afl-news/...tv-ratings-20150813-giys0q.html#ixzz3igsNI12W
Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook

 

[undertaker]

ONe thing that does need to be stipulated in the next tv rights deal: Adelaide needs decent FTA coverage. They're the only major metropolitan area in Australia that still is getting matches on Ch9 after midnight.

 

[insert.pause]

Ch9 have been very quiet about winning the rights, no mention in either the game or the footy show.

 

[Nerd]

With 7 refusing to pay more for the AFL FTA rights last time round and Nein effectively ruled out of competing this time is there any reason for 7 to significantly up the amount paid for the upcoming AFL FTA rights? Maybe 10 and Fox will combine to make a serious offer but with 10 not having the cash and Fox having to leave money aside for the more important NRL rights does this leave the AFL in a financial hole with their next rights deal?

 

[Cletus]

With 7 refusing to pay more for the AFL FTA rights last time round and Nein effectively ruled out of competing this time is there any reason for 7 to significantly up the amount paid for the upcoming AFL FTA rights? Maybe 10 and Fox will combine to make a serious offer but with 10 not having the cash and Fox having to leave money aside for the more important NRL rights does this leave the AFL in a financial hole with their next rights deal?

It will definitely make it interetsing for the AFL. I'm sure they would have wanted 9 to make a competitive offer but they still could get one from 10 and Fox. I think that would be Fox's preferred partner. But I do think League will end up with a better deal than the AFL, their ratings have gone backwards over the last few years and they now don't have the competitive tension they did. Nine always wanted to keep the League but after paying so much for the NRL 7 now know they aren't a serious bidder.

 

[Cumberland Throw]

seems 7 do get the 4 afl games pretty cheap... $90m a year...

but caro is forgetting the nrl deal includes the jugganaut of SOO...

Its worth $50m a year FTA on its own

 

[insert.pause]

seems 7 do get the 4 afl games pretty cheap... $90m a year...

but caro is forgetting the nrl deal includes the jugganaut of SOO...

Its worth $50m a year FTA on its own

Nine currently pays the NRL $95m a year.

Origin is apparently worth $30m a year under the new deal, so the NRL competition is worth at least $130m a year cash, which if the AFL were to achieve would be a 45% increase on what Seven are paying them now, they will be doing well to get close to that.

I think Nine were scared shitless about the NRL going to tender without f&l rights and paid a significant premium to avoid it. Not sure Seven will now feel the same about the AFL with ten their only real threat and with only really half a dozen more thursday night games thrown in there is nothing new to justify a 45% rise in value of what they are currently getting. At least 9 can justify it with going from 1 to 4 live games a week, including thursday's, there's nothing new for Seven.

 

[nrlnrl]

Netflix already killing them slowly.. They will have to go hard at the NRL right now especially since most of their subscribers are from NSW/QLD :lol:

The numbers quoted seem to conflict with those in the article listed by Panfas at 9:30PM. I suppose there'll be plenty of this type of different reporting of profits, stats etc in the competing media.

Anyway, interesting to see when the bid / deal is submitted by Foxtel. Do they need to act quickly or does that seem like panic ? Or do they negotiate with a measured approach to not seem desperate ? It's a bit like the follow up after a first date.

 

[Desert Qlder]

It appears inevitable that AFL will end up with a twilight GF.

When they sit down to negotiate and 7 ask "okay, what have you got"? McLachlan can't very well answer "oh we are going to introduce AFL origin the week of the GF". There won't be a lot of meat in the sandwich for them. There are simply less factors at play to drive up value, compared to what occurred in NRL negotiations.

The jury is still out on McLachlan also. He has come through the Goodes saga looking pretty limp and not at all the iron fisted figure that Demetriou was. So far he is escaping criticism but there is now significant pressure on him.

AFL appear to be a battered organisation right now. The doping scandal and Goodes affair have really knocked them around and the high levels of goodwill they have enjoyed this past decade are eroding. They will get an increase in rights but it will be no shock should their final dollar figure be less than ours.

 

[Perth Red]

How many adverts does $25mill a year buy?

 

[Brutus]

Why was there a Gary Abberlit ALF Gatorade ad during Thursday night footy?

Wouldn't Gatorade be better served with a RL player promoting their product during a RL broadcast?

 

[DC_fan]

News Corp reports: Sports rights, print ad revenue, Foxtel subs

News Corp reports: Sports rights, print ad revenue, Foxtel subs
13
Aug, 2015
by Mediaweek
Print this article
Font size -16+
News Corporation today reported financial results for the three months and fiscal year ended June 30, 2015.

Commenting on the results, chief executive Robert Thomson (pictured) said:

“Thanks to solid performance across a number of our businesses, including the fast-growing realtor.com, we had a strong fourth quarter finish to a good fiscal year. Despite an uneven global economy, very tough currency headwinds and the ongoing transformation of the media landscape, for fiscal 2015 we posted stable revenues, robust EBITDA growth and healthy free cash flow.

“With disciplined internal investments, strategic acquisitions and ongoing product innovation, we have aggressively shifted the company to be more global and more digital. We have clearly emerged as an international leader in digital real estate, opened up new territories at HarperCollins, expanded digital subscriber penetration at our mastheads and successfully integrated our programmatic exchange, creating new digital and mobile advertising opportunities across News Corp.

“We have begun to execute on a capital return program that signifies our confidence in the prospects of the company and the efficacy of its long-term strategy. The year ahead will be an opportunity to build on the sound and profitable platform we have collectively created.”

Speaking on the earnings call this morning from Sydney, Thomson noted this marks the second anniversary of the new News Corp, with the company financially stronger and better positioned for the future.

Thomson also discussed the continuing investment in digital. International success included growth at The Wall Street Journal and The Times, while the company admitted it was facing challenges at The Sun in London.

Foxtel continues to report subscriber growth with the numbers up 9% year-on-year to around 2.8m. Foxtel revenue was up 2% YOY, but EBITDA was down 16% partly because of increased costs for sports rights.

When Thomson was asked about this week’s Nine deal for NRL rights, he commented: “Football rights is a contact sport in itself. We are currently at about half time [in the NRL negotiations].” He didn’t comment further apart from adding, “I am an AFL tragic, and the result I am focused on is an Essendon victory on Saturday.”

There was little commentary about Australian newspapers, except a note that ad revenues were down 8% YOY with particular weakness from the retail and auto categories.

• Full Year Results

News Corp reported fiscal 2015 full year total revenues of $8.63 billion, a 1% increase as compared to the prior year revenues of $8.57 billion. The increase reflects growth in the book publishing and digital real estate services segments, primarily as a result of the acquisitions of Harlequin Enterprises Limited and Move, respectively, which was partially offset by adverse foreign currency fluctuations and lower advertising revenues at the News and Information Services segment. Adjusted revenues were 1% lower than the prior year.

The company reported full year total segment EBITDA of $852 million, an 11% increase as compared to $770 million in the prior year. These results include $50 million in fees and costs in fiscal 2015 and $72 million in fiscal 2014 – net of indemnification – related to the UK newspaper matters. The improvement was driven by increased revenues in the book publishing segment due to the inclusion of Harlequin results and lower expenses, mainly due to the increased capitalisation of software development costs, at the digital education segment; partially offset by adverse foreign currency fluctuations, declines at the news and information services segment, which includes higher legal costs at News America Marketing, and stock-based compensation expense in connection to the acquisition of Move.

http://www.mediaweek.com.au/news-corp-reports-sports-rights-print-ad-revenue-foxtel-subs/

 

[Diesel]

^ what a douche. There's no need to add they are an Essendon supporter when talking about NRL, just goes to show how irrelevant the sport is that it needs to be mentioned

 

[Haffa]

So it's half time but he's playing a different game? No surprise the NRL and 9 got the jump on them.

 

[insert.pause]

Why was there a Gary Abberlit ALF Gatorade ad during Thursday night footy?

Wouldn't Gatorade be better served with a RL player promoting their product during a RL broadcast?

pretty sure league is sponsored by Powerade.

 

[insert.pause]

fox can't even say they are ad free if they simulcast, AFR reporting they would have to run Nine's ad breaks, but fox could embed their own in-broadcast, so they could have their own graphics etc

 

[nrlnrl]

Why was there a Gary Abberlit ALF Gatorade ad during Thursday night footy?

Wouldn't Gatorade be better served with a RL player promoting their product during a RL broadcast?

That's a Channel 9 issue ( what ads they run during NRL )

Also, what do people think about Channel 9 continually moving kick off times to suit them ? Last night was 7:55 & apparently all the Thursday & Friday night games until Round 26 will start around this time. I think the Thursday night time is just unfair, especially for kids. The NRL should be stronger on this to allow & encourage the next generation of fans to watch games. To have SOO starting around 8:20 is terrible, what chance to kids have to watch this when it finishes around 10p.m. on a school night ?

The tired old line about 'we paid a lot of money we can put it one when we like' is ridiculous when you compare it to sports like the NFL, NBA & EPL who start their events at the advertised time ( not when the tv broadcaster wants to ) & pay just a little bit more than the NRL rights.

 

[insert.pause]

Smith could give them a money tree and they would complain about having to water it.

"Privately"? Publicly, in a video on smh website, Gould congratulated Smith on the deal & praised his business acumen. Genuine or more two faced Gus?

Tackle Six – $20 million carrot a sweetener for clubs

All the talk since the NRL announced its new $925 million broadcast deal on Monday has been around how big a slice of the pie the 16 hungry clubs will receive. The final breakdown is sure to be the subject of furious negotiations in the coming months, but it appears there will be a pre-emptive morsel that’s sure to keep the clubs satisfied for now. We’ve been a told a major reason why Dave Smith signed-off so early was a promise to forward $20 million to the clubs next year. That’s $1.25 million each.

For many struggling franchises that will prove the difference between a painful loss and a break-even year. For example Manly is expecting to end the year $1.5 million in the red – a huge financial impost upon the club’s private owners. But the swift sweetener won’t be enough to quell the uprising from the likes of the Roosters, Panthers and Bulldogs. Privately those clubs view Smith’s early move as a tactical blunder.

The broadcast starts in 2018, but only four clubs – Newcastle, Wests Tigers, St George Illawarra and Gold Coast – have signed participation agreements beyond that season. The other 12 clubs are only secured to the NRL until the expiration of the current deal in 2017. Those clubs now feel they have Smith where they want him, because he needs all 16 franchises on board to fulfil the eight game-a-weekend commitment.

https://au.sports.yahoo.com/league/a/29253095/the-7th-tackle-with-josh-massoud-and-jim-wilson/



Found this the other day;

Nick Pappas ‏@Navlakas Jul 30
Really?? 3 clubs don't equal 12: Unhappy NRL clubs could usher in another rebel competition

https://twitter.com/Navlakas/status/626705509328904192