http://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/sevens-splash-tip-for-league-rights/story-fn6ck6i3-1226039937672
Seven's splash tip for league rights
Robert Craddock
From: The Courier-Mail
April 16, 2011 12:00AM
CHANNEL 7 will attempt to pluck the jewel of rugby league's broadcasting crown by having a massive tilt for the State of Origin football rights.
Cashed-up Seven are also interested in snaring Friday night football but the super-rating Origin series is more realistic. All major networks are in the mix for the new rights from 2013.
NRL boss David Gallop has said the bidding process will not formally start until rugby league's new commission is formed. League is the most watched sport on Australian television, with an aggregate audience of 128.5 million viewers last year.
Rugby league executives argue that if they draw about the same number of viewers as the AFL annually both float between 120 million and 130 million they should get the same-sized rights, not the $50 million a year less they currently get..
League's price is likely to vault to more than $800 million, a godsend for a code in which only four of 16 clubs showed a profit last year.
The NRL's rights landscape could change depending on what happens in the AFL rights war which is expected to be settled in the next few weeks.
"Sports television rights are the last of the great blood sports," an NRL spokesman said. "We are all looking forward to them because they will be so good for the game."
As Darren Lockyer points out in his Courier-Mail column, an injection of cash would have the game strike back in the war for blue-chip talent.
The rights are currently held by Channel 9, Foxtel and Sky TV in New Zealand who signed a six-year $500 million package to broadcast the game between 2007-12. Channel 9 are believed to be on equal footing with current free-to-air AFL broadcasters Channels 7 and 10. If Nine lands the rights, Seven could be even more aggressive in chasing the NRL.
The three Origin games are ratings mega-hits with last year's first game being one of the most watched programs with 2,460,000 viewers.
"The rugby league rights came cheap last time and Seven's owner Kerry Stokes is better positioned than anyone to have a big go this time at a part of the package such as Origin," one industry source said.
"Channel 9 has a massive investment in next year's Olympics, Ten haven't got much money and the Commonwealth Games in Delhi was a disaster for them. Seven are the only ones with big cash reserves. It will be a bit of an ego thing with Stokes. He knows it will hurt the other guys.
"If Seven gets the rights to Origin they can still make a profit. Thirty second ads in the Origin broadcast go for around $35,000 in Sydney and more than $20,000 in Brisbane."
Though Seven already have the rights to the AFL, several factors point to them being more aggressive in the rugby league bidding this time.
Their chief executive David Leckie is a big league fan and fully appreciates the value of the product.
When Seven officials attend conferences with interstate colleagues and they are asked to list their state's top 10 shows, it gives Brisbane executives no pleasure to reveal that many of the top 10 are league shows.
The reaction of colleagues is, "how do we get a bit of that?", and now they will chase hard for the slice of the pie.
Several influential observers such as Souths owner Russell Crowe have felt rugby league had under sold itself but this time there has been a strong feeling that the game will maximise its chances of a bumper reward by splitting up its product.
"We could split it up," Gallop said recently. "We are in a position where all of our rights are coming up at the same time. Previously, we have sold the garage and the house on different days. Now we can sell the whole property together, we might split it up along competition or timeslot lines."
