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http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-man-who-holds-the-key-to-tv-sport-20100421-t02k.html
The man who holds the key to TV sport
ROY MASTERS
April 22, 2010
SHOW ME THE MONEY
Broadcasting rights fees are the lifeblood of professional sport in Australia and, along with its close relation, sponsorship, contributes 60 to 80 per cent of total revenue.
More than $350 million in TV income pumps through Australian sport annually, with one player involved in all the big contracts, either the current deals, or negotiations for the next rights fee package.
He is Colin Smith, a 50-year-old Melburnian, who, despite his surname being the most common in the English-speaking world, is the only Smith common to the caller ID's of the phones of Australia's top sporting officials.
He logs more air miles than most pilots, crossing the country as the boss of LEK's regional Sports, Gaming, Media and Entertainment division, as well as recently linking up with the former Cricket Australia and ICC boss, Mal Speed, to form Global Media and Sports, a firm specialising in negotiating broadcasting deals for sports.
Smith worked on the biggest TV deal in sporting history - the AFL's five-year, $780 million contract - in tandem with Ben Buckley, who is now the chief executive of the FFA.
Buckley and Smith lodged the AFL's initial claim for rights fees to the Channel Seven-Ten consortium at only 4 per cent of the sum the then Channel Nine boss, Kerry Packer lodged, forcing Seven-Ten to meet it under their first and last rights clause.
Smith is advising the NRL chief executive, David Gallop, on rugby league's next broadcasting contract, which hopes to deliver parity with the AFL.
Smith helped ARU chief John O'Neill with the soon-to-be-announced SANZAR rights, and helped Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland with the last TV deal and is involved in the next round of rights. Thoroughbred racing, including the AJC, VRC and Queensland Racing, consult with Smith and AOC chairman, John Coates, has engaged him on digital rights.
Even exotic deals - advising PNG on the broadcasting value it can bring to the NRL as a possible new franchise and preparing a brief for ANZ Stadium on the likely TV income of a possible hybrid rules match between the Kangaroos and Wallabies - are on his desk.
The big professional sports are lining up like formula one cars at the grid, as anticipated changes to the federal government's anti-siphoning rules are expected to favour the cash-strapped free-to-air broadcasters.
Rugby union media rights are first out, with the Wallabies and Super 15 deals soon to be announced. The AFL is next, with its contract concluding in 2011, followed by the NRL a year later. Cricket is the last of the big sports to finish existing deals.
Smith rejects claims his multiplicity of deal-making exposes him to accusations of conflict of interest, saying, ''I am acting for the sport, and not the sport and the broadcaster at the same time. If I was doing the AFL and the NRL at the same time, it would be a problem.''
Smith is convinced all sports will receive more from their next broadcasting deals. ''I am very confident that the leading professional sports will continue to grow. Popular sports guarantee TV audiences. The fragmentation of audiences across more channels on free-to-air and pay TV, and now through broadband, will ensure an increase in overall audiences watching the game and holding it for longer.''
Nor does he see an increase in one sport's rights income necessarily being at the expense of another, although it seems certain Channel Nine - desperate to hold NRL rights - will not pitch seriously for AFL, leaving the Seven-Ten consortium as the only bidder.
He cites NRL as an ''excellent TV product'' and notes Gallop is considering unbundling the existing rights of the Telstra premiership, State of Origin and Four Nations tournament, although Channel Nine believes its first-and-last rights deal prevents the NRL from doing this.
Of rugby union, he says: ''The new SANZAR Melbourne team in Australia's second-largest market, together with a guaranteed finalist from the five Australian teams, will give the competition a real boost. Last year, the Waratahs effectively disappeared off our TV screens for three weeks because they were playing in South Africa after midnight in Australia. This will happen less under the new contract.''
Of cricket: ''The international runaway success of the Twenty20, especially IPL, is a clear indicator the market has adopted another form of cricket. Similarly, the success of the KFC Big Bash this season, with the inclusion of international players, has been a big success.''
However, the Australian sports market is highly competitive, with more national leagues per million of population than any other nation.
''There are clubs that are financially challenged,'' Smith said, pointing to Super 14's Queensland Reds, recently taken over by the ARU; the A-League's North Queensland Fury being bailed out by FFA; the AFL's Port Adelaide, which sought a merger with a more cashed-up second-tier club; and NRL team Cronulla's ongoing problems with the bottom line.
''The picture for the football codes is rosy only while all teams are competitive and guaranteeing an audience to TV.''
Smith is a gold medal-winning rower, winning Australia's first ever World Championship in the lightweight fours at Lucerne in 1974. He subsequently won medals at the following three World Championships and, as chairman of Rowing Australia, he will lead the sport to the London Olympics.
While he may have multiple oars in the water at once, he is confident he can negotiate the murky waters of Australian TV, with its history of conspiring to depress rights fees to sport.
