matrightyeh
Juniors
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- 825
nine does ok
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Which would make it no contest between AFL and NRL. The NRL would towel the AFL every week. Its that underlieing popularity of Rugby League that has kept the game going through the current News Ltd rip-off perriod.
7 10 joint bid vs 9 - should push the free to air rights up
7. Ian Frykberg
Former Packer and Murdoch man now negotiating top dollar TV rights deals
Managing director, International Sports Television
Age: 65
Born in: South Africa, he moved to New Zealand as a child before crossing the ditch to Australia in his early twenties
Friends: Sam Chisholm | John Singleton
Home Town: Sydney
FORMER LIFE
Frykberg was a journalist at the SMH and Channel Nine before moving into management
ASSOCIATED
News Limited
Ian Frykberg is the most powerful sports rights agent in the country. With his sandy brown hair and intimidating physique, the former journalist, media executive and rugby front-row forward casts a large shadow over the sporting landscape -- literally and figuratively.
When the NRL hammers out a $1 billion-plus deal to sell its TV rights next year he'll be there representing Foxtel. Just like how he was in the thick of it when the AFL recently sold its TV rights for a record $1.25 billion (again on the side of Foxtel).
In fact, if you look at any major sports deal in the last decade-and-a-half you'll find his fingerprints on it.
As well as rugby union, rugby league and the AFL, Frykberg's talents have seen him do deals involving soccer, cricket and the Olympics.
Why? Because he gets results. Sky TV New Zealand boss John Tellet describes the former rugby union front rower as one of the "smartest guys he has ever met" when it comes to sports rights.
Tellet was on the other side of the table to big "Frykers" when he was negotiating for rugby union body SANZAR over their recent five-year $472 million broadcasting deal.
"He is the guy in the background but he is probably the most powerful guy in sport. He has contacts everywhere," Tellet told the Sunday Star Times last year.
Frykberg's eye for detail is one of the qualities for which he gets praised ("he can tell me what the Finnish pay TV company is paying for CNN," says Tellet) and his wealth of knowledge is invaluable as a deal-maker.
But despite his stellar CV you won't find Frykberg listed in Who's Who. And don't even bother checking Wikipedia; the quietly-spoken South African's name was mentioned just seven times in the press last year according to Media Monitors.
So what does Frykberg actually do? In a nutshell, he's paid to know the latest broadcasting trends inside and out, all the while maintaining a decent set of contacts including all the country's top sports administrators.
He's also there to figure out exactly what the broadcasters and sporting bodies want out of a deal (acting behind the scenes if necessary) and then work hard to get what his employer desires. For an appropriate price, of course.
As Frykberg tells The Power Index, sports rights agents are there to "bear the brunt of grievances" from both parties and "help to find a way through". To grease the wheels, as they say.
"He is certainly one of the big influencers in sport," says a rival sports rights agent. "And his influence comes from both acting for the broadcaster and for the sport."
One of the contracts Frykberg recently advised on was the $1.2 billion AFL rights sell-off, the nation's biggest ever sports media deal. Frykberg acted for Foxtel, who inked a $557 million five-year deal with the AFL and Channel Seven to show every match live.
There were a lot of late nights in the ten month-long process, says Frykberg, and some tense moments, particularly when expectations weren't realised "on both sides": "The AFL negotiations were pretty heavy negotiations simply because the AFL is a very well-structured body, they know exactly what they want and they push hard for it."
Frykberg and Foxtel had a big win by scoring that deal to show every game live, bargaining with Seven to allow them to simulcast the games they planned to broadcast.
The deal marked a major progression for Australian broadcasting, further entrenching the move of major sports towards subscriber television.
But the TV dollars don't stop at the AFL. Frykberg's fans run far and wide, including internationally. His consultancy International Sports Rights Television was involved in the negotiations for the recent Sky Italia Serie A broadcasting deal, a contract worth a cool 1.8 billion Euro.
Then there's the NRL, a code which Frykberg has had a long dalliance with. As well as being a key man in the infamous Super League upheaval of the late nineties, Frykberg has been a director of the NRL and executive director of sport at News Limited (which owns 50% of the league).
Frykberg is reluctant to talk numbers when it comes to the NRL's prospects of eclipsing the AFL's monster contract, noting that the negotiations are yet to begin, but he does concede a good result is on the horizon for the code.
"My view is the NRL will achieve a figure which is substantially higher than their current figure."
And in terms of how much agents like Frykberg make from these huge deals, it's hard to say. Broadcasters hoping to keep the price low will typically offer a lump sum fee, while sporting bodies seeking maximum dollars might offer a percentage cut.
As one former sporting administrator told The Power Index: "there's no hard and fast rule when it comes to these things, but one thing's for sure: they're very well paid."
What is clear is that Frykberg has been on the path to power for a long time. He served one of the best apprenticeships in the country, running sport and current affairs for Kerry Packer during the golden years at Channel Nine.
He was founding EP of the Today show, EP of Sunday and Business Sunday and editor of The Bulletin, as well as being a Kerry favourite.
After that he was a key Rupert Murdoch lieutenant, heading up the Sun King's news and sport divisions.
"I'm a considerably different operator, [but] the philosophies of those guys of saying let's get it done rather than asking how can it be done," Frykberg says. "You need to approach everything with an open mind about the art of what's possible."
And as a Canberra political correspondent in the seventies Frykberg played witness to The Dismissal, perhaps the greatest power play in Australian history, which he wrote up for the Sydney Morning Herald front page the following day.
"Ian was a gentle assassin, but as lethal as they come," says Ben Sandilands, who worked for Frykberg at the SMH and was headhunted by him at The Bulletin.
"I never saw him play rugby, but I have this mental construct of him breaking someone's back and leaning over the victim saying 'Oh sorry about that.'"
Frykberg also has the connections of a powerbroker who's been in and around the inner sanctum most of his professional life. He's mates with Sam Chisholm, the former Nine and Sky powerbroker. He's also reportedly friends with larrikin Sydney adman and horseflesh doyen John Singleton.
"I've never seen myself as powerful person or whatever," says Frykberg. "But clearly I've been operating in the business a long time and I do have extensive high level contacts."
As for what's next, it looks like the next generation seems set to take over the family business. His son, Jake, is listed as a finance manager on ISTV's website, while his other son, Jarrod, is involved in the company's marketing arm. Jarrod also did some promoting for rugby league forward-turned-boxer Solomon Haumono.
Or maybe it's in horses. One of Frykberg's sprinters, Zaratone, recently took home the chocolates with a dashing win in the $100,000 Starlight Stakes at Rosehill, with the rest of the family earning a couple of extra quid on the punt in the process.
Or maybe he'll take a leaf out of book of some of his former employers and keep on working until he's got it all.
