Kent is correct- the TV deal was stuffed up by Smith and Grant and is definitely a couple of hundred mil short...
Smith also squandered a lot of money expanding the size of the NRL administration and didn't deliver on the promised dollars for the "future fund".
Honestly don't get the love for Smith..
Is this the same Paul Kent who told us what a great deal the NRL had done:
NRL broadcast rights deal shows rugby league is finally growing up
PAUL KENT, The Daily Telegraph
November 27, 2015 9:00pm
Subscriber only
ASIDE from a group hug and a gentle rendition of Kumbaya, nothing could have been more friendly at Friday’s broadcast deal announcement at League Central.
So here is a pre-Christmas present for ARL Commissioner John Grant, who did his greatest work this week.
After suffering a smattering of slings and arrows from this direction in recent weeks, it is time to say fair play.
Grant did well.
So good, only time will truly show how good a job he did.
Grant’s greatest work was to bring the parties back together and get them to a point where, as he said, they could all sit together at the press conference happy that they got what they wanted.
It signalled a new era in the game. One of friendship and co-operation.
It sounds frightening to say, but the game might finally be growing up.
It began when former News Corp chairman Julian Clarke called Grant to get them back around the campfire after News got ambushed by former NRL boss Dave Smith’s exclusive deal with Channel Nine in August.
While nobody will go on to remember that deal with any particular fondness,
Grant made it clear that the free-to-air deal with Channel Nine negotiated in August was the “catalyst” necessary to get this deal done.
“You need catalysts for things to happen and we all know that these negotiations take twists and turn and sometimes, with the outcomes, we need to respond to the changing environment and that’s exactly what’s happened here,” he said.
“So what that deal did, when it was announced, was actually catalyse all of the rest of the parties to where we sit today.”
The upside is, inadvertently, it got a whole lot more. First Smith had to go.
From there, it allowed the broadcasters to show they could let bygones stay bygones, which encouraged the NRL to do likewise and finally bury its distrust of the media that began with Super League.
For two decades it held the game back.
And while much fanfare was made over the Commission’s previous broadcast deal being “independent”, many old prejudices still underwrote those negotiations. Not now.
The thrust throughout these talks was about letting go of the past and moving ahead in a manner that benefits all.
“The basis of this new deal is that when the tide rises all the boats rise,” Fox Sports chief executive Patrick Delaney said.
Nothing Grant will do in the game might be as important as that, which is not to be undervalued. So now, the old deal is gone.
They all agreed to throw it out and instead next season will be the first in a seven-year deal that will finally allow NRL to be covered in the manner the best modern sports are and which it should have been all along.
Fox will simulcast all eight games, live and ad free, and continue to package it around its magazine shows.
The bonus is hidden in the detail.
For the first time, access standards have been written into contract form. This will cause a great migraine to the likes of the Wayne Bennett and Des Hasler, who are happy for coaches to allow access and promote the game so long as they are not the coaches providing the accessing.
Under the new rules, if they want the money they have to pay the provider.
The AFL realised some time ago that greater access to their game resulted in more publicity and more money.
This deal is worth $1.8 billion and is expected to reach $1.9 billion when radio and international rights are added. Of greater value is the sense of co-operation reached.
The next test now comes Wednesday, when Grant meets with the clubs over funding. They better be careful, he’s in form for it.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...p/news-story/61eaa239edb778899f119757bc767c5f
