Rugby League's Messiah! - Virgin TV!

[JK]

Branson has shown a willingness to take a loss on league. His payment of the London Broncos debts was a phenomenal geture.

 

[Bluebag]

Singo is a businessman but also a very keen football fan, his involvement goes back many years and is still patron of the Jets and seeks no public announcements on what he does for a battling club in fact very few know about his great support.

He is not a man to let an opportunity go and has the knack of taking losing businesses and making them profitable.

 

[DIEHARD]

More on the issue of a fourth FTA license.

TV licence debate flares - http://www.news.com.au
By Jane Schulze
April 2, 2004

THE debate over the fourth free-to-air TV licence has begun, with Ten Network executive chairman Nick Falloon rejecting the idea and one of Australia's top media buyers, Zenith Media's Anne Parsons, arguing it is desperately required.

Their comments came after advertising guru John Singleton said he hoped to buy the next commercial free-to-air TV licence, scheduled to be made available in January 2007.

Mr Singleton said he and his new partner in a radio venture, Virgin group chairman Richard Branson, were keen to start the new TV station.

"Try to hold us back," he said.

Asked about Mr Singleton's plans after an Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce lunch yesterday, Mr Falloon said he did not expect them to pose a strong threat. "I don't know if they have any plans (but) it's a debate that will take place over the next few years.

"I believe we will need competition in the pay-TV market before we need further competition in free-to-air."

But Zenith Media chief executive Anne Parsons strongly supported new competition in the free-to-air TV sector. "We are desperately in need of more competition, so I'm someone who supports the 2007 opportunity for a fourth network," she said.

"It will make sure the right thinking is going into what the programming is like, and the more opportunity I have to provide certain (advertising) environments for my clients, the better I think it is."

The new free-to-air station is expected to be digital-only, and Ms Parsons believes this will lift viewing of free-to-air digital TV. "I love what digital should be capable of doing but there's such a gap between that and what's going on, so anything that accelerates that would be really good," she said.

She said digital free-to-air TV provided the opportunity for interactive or more integrated advertising and that's what her clients wanted. "They are now talking more about that than the conventional 30-second TV ad," she said.

The federal Government is due to review the issue of the fourth free-to-air TV licence before the end of this year but has yet to announce how or when that will occur.

Only 270,000 of a possible 7million homes have upgraded their free-to-air TVs to digital, but Mr Falloon disagreed with the notion that the digital rollout was slow. "Digital free-to-air in Australia is ahead of the US and proportionately ahead of where the UK was this far along," he said.

Mr Falloon also took a swipe at two of the owners of pay-TV group Foxtel - 25 per cent owners News Ltd (publisher of NEWS.com.au>) and Kerry Packer's Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd. He said the funds they made from their dual ownership of the Fox Sports pay-TV channel covered their losses incurred at Foxtel.

"The third party in Foxtel, (50 per cent owner) Telstra, is losing all the money, so that's you and me funding a pay-TV monopoly for Rupert (Murdoch) and Kerry," he said.

The Australian

 

[robbieando]

I think some of you are getting way ahead of yourselves. You have to remember that

a) The federal government is yet to decide whether there is going to be a 4th FTA licence.
b) If the federal govt decides to issue a 4th licence, Virgin won't be the only media group looking to win the licence and they certainly won't be the most cashed up.
c) If Virgin wins the licence, they still won't have decided what they will show, hey they might decide that they rather stay clear of League in the early days.
d) If they decide to show Rugby League, Virgin still have to bid for and win the NRL rights and Channel 9 won't make that easy.
e) If they do win the FTA rights for the NRL, there is no promise that you'll see anymore than 3 matches a weekend on FTA, considering that Fox Sports won't be giving up ANY of their 5 matches per round and they won't be forced into it considering Foxtel part own the NRL.

Sounds promising that 2 League people are thinking bidding for a FTA licence, but there is still a long way to go before they get to the stage of bidding for the NRL rights and its more than likely they won't be ready to bid at the next round of FTA rights, thus meaning it could be at least a decade before Virgin are even able to bid for the rights and even then the above has to fall into place and thats as likely as Bob Brown ever becoming this countries PM.

 

[t-ba]

The Next Round of Bidding is for season 2007 right?

I Imagine the network will be given a year to a year and a half to build their network and thus will be able to bid for the Television rights. Sports is a proven ratings winner in Oz in general and in particular AFL and League, so I imagine any new channel would endevour to get one of these on the books.

in saying that I think 2007 is an unrealistic target for a launch date.

 

[DIEHARD]

robbieando, I think it's very good for Rugby League. Two rugby league supporters are bidding for a license. And competition is good and corporates have alot of influence. Its not like some blow ins are interested in the license.

I think what we are primarily interested in is that there is a possiblity of a channel whose owners who have a massive interest in Rugby League and there is a good possiblity they will use sport to spearhead their launch and you can count on them given the sport top class treatment. And rugby league is the odds on favourite.

But the obvious upside is even if Virgin don't get the rights they will help bid up our contract. Rugby League could benifit from money but also proper tv coverage. The way Ch 9 treats NRL is a disgrace, even an AFL fan would have to agree. The fact that both sports are on the network and their subsequant treatment clearly illustrates the bias.

Virgin entering the market is great news. On top of possible interest from Ch 7 and even 10 it should be a good market for renegoiation. We will definately get the national tv coverage our code desperately needs.

Virgin TV will be bloody fantastic for RL if it comes about. Singo will go for Rugby League, there is no question about it. And we are gonna get the dollars! NRL can't afford new clubs? Bullshit, add another three. ;-)

 

[Surandy]

The current FTA TV rights expire at the end of the 2007 season.

 

[blacktip-reefy]

The problem is Packer controls the NRL. Even though the NRL a News ltd company, Channel 9 are calling every shot.
this means you will probably expect the new rights negotiations to come up over the next year or so. The pay rights are also up for grabs soon. packer owns 50% of pay rights as well. With News.
Then, you have the platform. Foxtel 25% News 25% packer 50% Telstra.

They are going to be very difficult to dislodge.

 

[Le Rouge]

I dont care who gets the rights to league as long as there is a FTA match on Saturday day or night.

And prime time coverage to the rest of AUS so they can see what a proper sport is.
But i suppose the frightened AFL media in the rest of Australia will try hard not to broadcast it.

NRL will have the better bargaining power than they did during the last negotiations so the what ever deal happens league will be better off.

 

[MEE]

I read the other day that Branson and Singelton were interested in getting a radio station up and running... #-o