I'm wondering how expansion is going to factor into all this. Are we going to be negotiating with the fact that we will soon have an extra game a week like the AFL are?
It might even be worth forcing a short term deal in order to get ahead of the AFL's next round and have the expansion & commission issues sorted.
That said however - the smartest thing the NRL can do is to put an additional clause in the TV contract that if a 9th game becomes available that a balloon payment of 'X amount' will be paid covering the years that the timeslot occurs during the contract period.
So you can sell the 9th game without actually having confirmed its existence so to speak.
Also the fact that we will have a team in Melbourne and Perth the 2 markets that fox are supposedly trying to increase their subscriber base in. Both the storm and the Perth team will have the majority of their games shown on fox.
The best part about admitting Perth is that i can see our ratings on fox going up even more with an extra market interested in league.
It'll go up across the board. Not to mention what will happen if we can/do get F2A coverage on the digital channels in those states.
They are actually going to agree to show live AFL into NSW and QLD even after seeing how it rates (and yet again ratings are plummeting this year)? That is just suicide for channel 9.
Not on the main, on either Go or Gem. It would be the same on a Sunday as well as there's no way 9 would risk losing NSW & QLD markets on a weak news lead in.
If i was 7 i would let them have the rights because live AFL in the northern states is going to make 9 bleed money.
It sounds like 9's plan is to cover both bases. It would buy all 4 games - Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday arvo & Monday night. Then offsell 1 or 2 of them to 7 & 10 - most likely Saturday night.
It also sounds like even though 9's bid is lower than 7 & 10's, that 7 & 10 aren't reacting to the pressure and are standing their ground. The decision for the AFL appears to be whether they go with 9 and get a wider and live coverage base but less money or stick with 7 & 10. The thing with 7 & 10 however is that they want to keep 2 games exclusive - Friday & Saturday nights - which in turn is causing Fox to lower their overall offer.
The best thing for the NRL will be for 9 to win the AFL rights because then all 3 networks would be back in the hunt for NRL rights and even competing against Fox for certain slots - with the added benefit of 9 being unable to afford their current package or being forced by the other networks to drive up their overall package offer.
