The T.V Rights Thread Part III

[docbrown]

There are ways of doing the same thing without having golden point.

Agreed. I'm in favour of extra time but with Golden Try stopping the clock and the points leader at that time (or end of extra time) being declared the winner.

Going back to one game on Friday doesn't mean sacrificing *any* ratings because it doesn't mean abandoning playing two games and showing different games in NSW and QLD. It just means only showing one of the two games live on free to air in each market and leaving the other game to the Fox simulcasts and replays.

It'd be stupid for the free to air network to waste one third or one quarter of a half billion dollar investment in a late slot that halves ratings when they could have another free to air slot in prime time on a different night (perhaps with the same arrangement where each market gets one match from a choice of two while the out of market match is relegated to Fox).

Leigh.

None of that is outside the realms of possibility but it all depends on what the F2A broadcaster wants. They can indeed structure the deal to buy a game in a specific market. During the life of this current deal though the late game is still performing better than whatever old movie 9 would be chucking on its place and to do what you suggest they would have had to have convinced Foxtel to give up a chunk of their Saturday exclusivity.

Now that said with the new negotiations - with a proper simulcasting arrangement, Foxtel are getting a slice of the F2A pie so they're more inclined to be open to such concepts. As you suggest, the 10 deal is supposedly to be structured with the F2A network targeting the core markets in key slots and Foxtel picking up the rest.

 

[docbrown]

THE NRL TV deal means more to broadcasting legend Ray Warren than most of us. If Channel 9 lose the rights, it will almost certainly end the career of the greatest television rugby league commentator of all time.
"I'll think seriously about pulling up stumps," said the 69-year-old veteran, who has just returned home from calling the swimming at the London Olympic Games.
"I don't think Ten or Seven would want me anyway because I've had a large Nine stamped on my forehead for so long.
"I certainly won't be sitting next to the phone waiting for offers."
Ten and Seven have both pitched strongly for the rights to televise rugby league, which Nine have held for more than two decades.
The man affectionately known as Rabbits began his broadcasting career 46 years ago calling football on radio in the country town of Young as a 23-year-old.

"If Nine lose the rights, I won't be suicidal because I've had such a great run," he said. "It will just make my retirement decision easier.
"David Gyngell always told me I'd be around for as long at Richie Benaud, but I don't know about that.
"Don't get me wrong, I'd love Nine to win the rights because I think I'm fit enough to call for another three years, but you just don't know."
Negotiations for the TV contract have stepped up this week with all of the network executives back in town after the London Olympics.
It is hoped a deal will be done before the grand final in seven weeks. Meanwhile, Warren has defended the swimming after criticism of the disappointing campaign in London. "I think our expectations were too high," he said. "From my research on times from Shanghai (world titles) and world rankings, we were only ever going to win two gold medals.
"All our swimmers tried their backsides off. People ask how could some of them swim faster in heats and semis than in finals. It's like rugby league. Some can excel in club football but fail at Origin level. It just happens."

CHANNEL Nine loves a mini-series on sporting controversy. The long-awaited Howzat! debuts tonight with the remarkable story of how Kerry Packer turned cricket on its head in the 1970s.

We're now hearing Nine boss David Gyngell has been in discussions with the Howzat! production company about following it up with a similar project on the Super League War next year.
It promises to be even more explosive than Howzat!, with researchers determined to uncover untold stories from the most bitter dispute in Australian sporting history.
Who is going to play Lachlan and James

It will be interesting to see how Channel 9 portrays the Super League war if/when 9 loses the NRL rights...

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...broadcast-rights/story-e6frexnr-1226453335165

 

[Everlovin' Antichrist]

"From my research"?

Cut it out Ray, we ALL know you don't do any research.

Hopefully you'll be retiring very soon.

 

[Brutus]

Goodbye Ray. Fingers crossed anyway.


Your rugby league calling has been an embarrassment for about the last 10 years. You were a good caller back in your mid-week cup days and early on with 9.

 

[RL_Patriot]

I know a lot will disagree, but I'd still like to see Rabs get the wrap he deserves and hopefully a decision is made soon so he can announce what his future holds. Even though we have gone through rough periods with Rabs' commentary, i grew up with his voice as the voice of rugby league. A respectable tribute by the network (if they lose the right) and the NRL is something he deserves.

 

[marlene w 1]

I didn't say that.

But golden point extended those already peaking ratings into the next 15 minute block...

How exciting was that golden point extra time?

 

[nrlnrl]

"From my research"?

Cut it out Ray, we ALL know you don't do any research.

Hopefully you'll be retiring very soon.

one of his favourite lines, the number ?? ( who I don't know because I haven't bothered to look at the teams until 5 minutes before kickoff )

deluxe dribbler over the past few years who spends too much time on anything but the game ( TAB, arguments with Gus, punting stories that are boring as.... plus Ch9 plugs etc )

 

[Billythekid]

Agreed. I'm in favour of extra time but with Golden Try stopping the clock and the points leader at that time (or end of extra time) being declared the winner.

100% agreed and that's exactly what i have been advocating. I'm not sure why we ever went with golden point in the first place.

None of that is outside the realms of possibility but it all depends on what the F2A broadcaster wants. They can indeed structure the deal to buy a game in a specific market. During the life of this current deal though the late game is still performing better than whatever old movie 9 would be chucking on its place and to do what you suggest they would have had to have convinced Foxtel to give up a chunk of their Saturday exclusivity.

Now that said with the new negotiations - with a proper simulcasting arrangement, Foxtel are getting a slice of the F2A pie so they're more inclined to be open to such concepts. As you suggest, the 10 deal is supposedly to be structured with the F2A network targeting the core markets in key slots and Foxtel picking up the rest.

This seems reasonable. I think the way our broadcasts are handled from next year on will be much better than it is now. I think we will definitely see significant increases in ratings overall.

 

[Edwahu]

Things are heating up:

ARL to secure over $1bn in rights deal

JAMES CHESSELL

KEY POINTS
Foxtel and Nine are believed to have lodged a bid of close to $1.1bn for the 2013-18 Australian NRL rights. Seven and Ten have also separately presented bids for the TV rights.

The new ARL Commission is likely to secure at least a $1 billion pay day after offers for the rugby league broadcast rights were quietly tabled last week. Sources close to the ARL confirmed that Seven West Media, Ten Network and a partnership of pay-television group Fox Sports Australia and free-to-air broadcaster Nine Entertainment Co separately presented bids at the NRL’s head office in Sydney on Friday.

It is believed the incumbent broadcasters, Foxtel and Nine, lodged a bid of close to $1.1 billion for the 2013-18 Australian television and digital rights. This six-year offer represents a significant premium to the current deal with Nine and Fox Sports – worth about $100 million per year – but falls short of the ARL’s preference of striking a deal worth at least the equivalent $1 billion over five years.

Nevertheless, once the contribution for the New Zealand rights – currently held by Sky – are included, the code and its adviser, Greenhill Caliburn, are likely to achieve the bottom end of their goal.

The new ARL Commission was formed earlier this year to run the National Rugby League after News Limited relinquished its 50 per cent stake in the code. The ARL is desperate to get close to the $1.25 billion Seven, Foxtel and Telstra agreed to pay for the 2012-16 AFL broadcast and digital rights. There is speculation that Greenhill Caliburn’s fee includes a hefty bonus if an equivalent price of more than $1 billion (over five years) can be achieved.

Sources close to the ARL would not discuss Seven’s presentation but there is also the possibility executive chairman Kerry Stokes – who surprised some observers by joining the Seven delegation on Friday – could attempt to trump its rivals by tabling an aggressive bid that pushed up the price. Other senior media executives to attend included Ten chairman Lachlan Murdoch and chief executive James Warburton, Nine chief executive David Gyngell and News Limited chief executive Kim Williams.

The NRL broadcast rights negotiations will be one of the largest media deals struck this year with far-reaching consequences for the industry. Mr Stokes could potentially use a big offer to extract concessions from News Limited, which owns 25 per cent of Foxtel and 50 per cent of Fox Sports. News Ltd has offered to buy identical shareholdings in Foxtel and Fox Sports held by James Packer’s Consolidated Media Holdings for $2 billion or $3.50 per share.

The majority of Fox Sports’s top-rating programs are NRL matches and the broadcaster could be forced to up its bid if Seven were to make a generous bid for multiple matches. A series of other sports rights negotiations including V8 Supercar and the next Olympics are on hold until the NRL is resolved.

The media negotiations are complicated by a “first and last” rights held by Nine, which has been a source of friction between the ARL and Nine.

Both sides have employed lawyers to test the strength of the first and last right that enables Nine to match any final bid by its rivals. The ARL would prefer to have four out of eight regular season matches per round broadcast on free-to-air – Nine currently airs three – but may be forced to settle for the current structure because the first and last rights allow Nine to mirror the structure of the current deal. There is also debate over whether this means the bids should be for five or six years.

While NRL matches are a valuable television commodity, weak advertising markets may reduce the ability of broadcasters to make bids that do not generate a profit. Nine lost money on the London Olympics while Foxtel and Ten did not generate a satisfactory return from the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

The current AFL deal has added to Seven and Foxtel’s costs with the pay-TV group disappointed additional AFL matches has not translated into strong subscriber growth.

http://afr.com/p/business/marketing_media/arl_to_secure_over_bn_in_rights_NKgOcQoSDWNvJhA1WU4rFI

So based on this its looking like around 1.25b for 6 years, which would put it at about 85% of the AFL deal. That would be a pretty good result IMO, without seeing the details.
It sounds like Stokes could push it even higher.

 

[Brutus]

C'mon 10 and 7. Price these 9 f**kers out of the race.

I'd tell 9 and fox to get f**ked with this 6 years rubbish.

 

[some11]

I'd take less money from 7/10, why would we want to put up with 6 more years of Nine's bullshit.

You just know they'd keep taking the game for granted and treating it like garbage, its time for a change.

 

[Panther_Daz]

Stokes boosts Seven bid for NRL rights



NEGOTIATIONS over the rugby league television rights have heated up, with representatives of the Nine, Seven, Ten and Fox networks making critically important presentations to the league on Friday followed by further talks via the telephone over the weekend.

According to television industry insiders, Channel Seven is making a strong run at taking the free-to-air rights away from long-time holder Channel Nine in the new deal.

''Seven would be the favourite at the moment,'' one insider told the Herald. ''Nine would be the underdog, but don't write them off. They're still in this battle. Seven have the shareholders with the deep pockets, but Nine still has the advantage of the first and last rights agreement.''

A clear indication of how keen Seven is to win the contract is that its chairman, Kerry Stokes, was at the league on Friday, along with the usual negotiators for his network.

Insiders say there isn't much difference in the money being offered by the free-to-air networks at this stage, and that the figures are indicative of how serious the competition is for the rights. Channel Ten is still in the race for a piece of the free-to-air league pie, which has the potential to be cut up between at least two of the three networks.

The league is said to want more money from Fox than the network is prepared to outlay for the pay television rights at this stage, leaving something to be thrashed out in further negotiations.

The word after the latest talks is that the overall rights deal has a very good chance of reaching the $1 billion mark, with one insider saying: ''It looks like being a billion, or very close to that, over five years. The game is in very good shape, and that is being reflected in the level of interest from the networks.

''Everyone has put their bids in now … according to the three-game-a-week package that is Nine's rights deal now, and they are being asked if they want any more games outside of the three games.'' The Herald

reported on July 13 that the Australian Rugby League Commission had told the networks what it would like from the deal, in terms of scheduling arrangements, and that it was keen to not only add a free-to-air game on Saturday nights, but also to have all the free-to-air games simulcast on Fox, which is what happens with the AFL.

Whether those prospects become realities will depend on the negotiations that follow Friday's presentations and the weekend talks.

Insiders says the rights deal is still on track to be finalised some time next month, during the finals series. An announcement of a billion-dollar deal in the lead-up to the grand final would be fantastic timing for the code.

''The negotiations are moving into the final stages now,'' one insider said. ''The networks were represented by all of their heavyweight negotiators at the ARLC offices on Friday, and there are two things that are clear - there is a lot of interest out there for the rights, and because of that there is no certainty about who is getting what at this stage.

''The league is headed for a good outcome. The free-to-air networks are being very aggressive in their pursuit of the rights, and the game is going to do well out of it as a result. That seems fitting, because the game appears to be in very good shape at the moment.''

Insiders have said all along that it was unrealistic for anyone to expect league to be able to match the AFL's current television rights deal of $1.25 billion over five years, pointing to the fact AFL had nine games a week to league's eight and that there was 30 per cent more advertising time available in AFL games.

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...-seven-bid-for-nrl-rights-20120819-24gnq.html

 

[Brutus]

There's a lot of conflicting info being released about this deal.

One minute it's ch 10 going hard, the next minute it's 7.

I guess this is all to be expected though.

 

[Ronnie Dobbs]

There's a lot of conflicting info being released about this deal.

One minute it's ch 10 going hard, the next minute it's 7.

I guess this is all to be expected though.

This would indicate a well run negotiation process. No leaks.

That indicates good leadership and respect.

 

[Phil McGrawhan]

I remember a bout 2 months ago ,Doc saying 7 would wait & then come in with a big bid.
Let 7 buy the lot ,keep SOO ,Onsell the rest to fox & 10.
f**k 9 & its 6 yr deal .Been there done that .
5 yrs is the longest you want in an ever rapidly changing content delivery world.

 

[BuffaloRules]

Positive news that Stokes went to the meeting - 7 must at least be serious...

Negative news on the 9 & Fox 6 year deal and the $1.1 Billion figure...

 

[taipan]

I still get the feeling the figures (if they are anywhere near reliable) do not take into account an 18 team comp.
The ARLC as indicated are asking what an extra match would be worth.The so called insiders ,are no more up to the figure,than we are ATM.
The fly in the ointment ,appears to be Foxsports .They want to play hard ball,tell them to get knotted ,and lose the NRL rights,and watch the subs drop like dump from a great height.

Ideally the code ends up with close to $1bn,including $150m contras.Plus Sky NZ of $75m over 5 years,plus a new sponsorship deal.

 

[Panther_Daz]

What was the breakdown of the AFL's deal?

 

[Lockyer4President!]

Both sides have employed lawyers to test the strength of the first and last right that enables Nine to match any final bid by its rivals. The ARL would prefer to have four out of eight regular season matches per round broadcast on free-to-air ? Nine currently airs three ? but may be forced to settle for the current structure because the first and last rights allow Nine to mirror the structure of the current deal. There is also debate over whether this means the bids should be for five or six years.

I reaaaalllly hope this doesn't come to bite us in the arse...

I wouldn't be able to stand having 3 FTA games per week on C9 for another six years...

 

[Haffa]

What was the breakdown of the AFL's deal?

The cash component is $1.118 billion, with $135 million extra in contra arrangements.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/112560/default.aspx