Broadcast options for Australian Rugby

[hoggy]

From a long term strategy - taking slightly lower amount with say a Optus and ten to get FTA exposure vs Fox which is a dying platform with limited exposure to the mass market has to be the better long term option for rugby in this country

I agree with this approach, but i'm curious how this whole thing adds up, the best scenario has the RA taking a 10/20% cut in revenue, yet they are looking at supporting a new national comp, now even at a third level to do this properly is going to take some investment so at a minimum expenses are going to increase 10/20%.
Looking at the make-up of Super rugby from 2021, the CEO of the Waratahs has already said the new structure is unsustainable financially.

So my point is all good talk of fta and a new approach, which i agree with, but unless i'm missing something this just doesn't stack up financially.

 

[hoggy]

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-...te-shield-tv-rights-deal-20200214-p540x2.html

Although this SMH article does explain things a bit more, get the feeling this ncc comp may not quite be as expansive as first predicted.

 

[Rebel man]

From a long term strategy - taking slightly lower amount with say a Optus and ten to get FTA exposure vs Fox which is a dying platform with limited exposure to the mass market has to be the better long term option for rugby in this country

People keep pushing Fox is a dying platform so it’s better to go to Optus for the pay TV part of the deal but Optus and fox are the same platform just delivered by different providers

 

[Adam84]

People keep pushing Fox is a dying platform so it’s better to go to Optus for the pay TV part of the deal but Optus and fox are the same platform just delivered by different providers

Presto and Netflix were the same platform provided by different providers as well

 

[RedsHappy]

I agree with this approach, but i'm curious how this whole thing adds up, the best scenario has the RA taking a 10/20% cut in revenue, yet they are looking at supporting a new national comp, now even at a third level to do this properly is going to take some investment so at a minimum expenses are going to increase 10/20%.
Looking at the make-up of Super rugby from 2021, the CEO of the Waratahs has already said the new structure is unsustainable financially.

So my point is all good talk of fta and a new approach, which i agree with, but unless i'm missing something this just doesn't stack up financially.

Yep

All this talk of FTA priorities and ‘multi platforms’ and ‘great added value Shute Shield’..........

That ship has sailed

RA need cash, they will take the highest cash bidder and forget everything else

 

[Adam84]

I don’t think the ship has sailed, but the only way they’re going to be able to achieve it is through what they’re doing now, by taking it to a competitive tender and presenting it as a whole of rugby package.

Yes a the golden plated solution of every super rugby match on FTA isnt going to happen, however i think there is still room for compromise where maybe the ‘highest bidder’ isn’t necessary in the ‘most valuable’ option for rugby.

 

[mst]

Didn’t she run the bulldogs into the ground. History isn’t on her side the Folau saga just dragged on and on and left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. Look she is trying to make positive changes at rugby Australia and I bloody hope she can succeed

History teaches us not to judge prematurely:

A quarter-century before boldly leading Britain in World War II, Winston Churchill spearheaded a World War I military debacle—Gallipoli.

 

[Adam84]

JON was brought back into Australian Rugby based on what he had done in the past, that didn’t exactly work out well.

 

[Ignoto]

RA need cash, they will take the highest cash bidder and forget everything else

This type of attitude is what got us into this mess in the first place. A cash grab is short sighted and will not help the game grow. If RA takes a small hit, but are able to grow the game it'll leave room for a huge windfall for the '25 B&I Lions tours and possibly a WC in '27.

 

[Adam84]

Hardest thing for RA if Optus win the Super Rugby broadcast rights is how they get this out to pubs and clubs, haven’t seen too many pubs with Optus streaming options.

 

[The Honey Badger]

I don’t mind that we certainly do have to try and re-establish the game in regional areas. Make them feel like they are part of the rugby community

Then if NRC is being chopped, why not use Country Eagles as the 12th.?

 

[The Honey Badger]

She receives an inordinate amount of hate considering that for the vast majority of her tenure she's performed well above what many would have expected. I could suggest why that is for some but I really don't want to get into that argument again.

I think her performance has demonstrated just how toxic and dysfunctional the Bulldogs were during her time there. It's common knowledge even to the likes of myself who has no interest in League that those at the helm of that organisation were far from cooperative and at time went completely rogue in defiance of her diecision making.

I think she has handled the negotiations well so far. She's not letting the pressure being applied to her and RA by the News mob get to her and is forging ahead with what is a rare commodity among much of the games luminaries. Some actual vision for where the game needs to be. It's why I'm at least willing to hear her out.

If she manages to get something close to what we got last time round but with the added feature of games on FTA then she'd have overachieved in my eyes. If she gets an increase and FTA then she'll be a fucking genius.

Agree, and might actually be worth $800k,

It astounds me, but I am starting to change my opinion of her. Getting Rugby out of the pay wall into mainstream media is huge. Go you good thing, to quote the great C Handy

 

[RedsHappy]

This type of attitude is what got us into this mess in the first place. A cash grab is short sighted and will not help the game grow. If RA takes a small hit, but are able to grow the game it'll leave room for a huge windfall for the '25 B&I Lions tours and possibly a WC in '27.

'

Why do you say 'attitude.' This is not about what I might like, desire, think re these matters.

It's about hard facts - see the statement R Davis Chair of the NSWRU made, essentially 'with even less home games in the new 2021 + format, if we don't get the same level of RA $ income as we currently have we will be headed for a financial crisis in NSW rugby'.

There were/are good grounds for what he said, it was not bluff. Our RUs are already in threadbare cost management mode and insiders regularly tell me and others that alone is seriously hurting, eg, local rugby promotion and marketing, coach and specialist support hiring and so on. RA's media-derived revenue $s are simply fundamental to our local RU's survival.

These $s will be fixed this year for 5 years, all the enhanced FTA exposure in the world will not change them upwards until 2026 - five long more years to get through - when the next media bidding round arrives. The RUs are already today looking at big $ declines in their gate income, and this too is a crucial income source for them - some might argue they may not get to 2025 on current trends without major additional cash infusions to prop them up and where will that derive from, it's unlikely.

The second flaw IMO in your (implicit) comments is that if say RA gets more FTA exposure, the 'if you show rugby for free, they will come' assumption is highly debatable.

The Aust Super product is poor, mostly. The Rebs v Tahs game was appalling in terms of skills, error rates, intensity and so on. Crowd cannot have been more than 4,000-5,000. If die-hard Foxtel subscribers that pay for the product are slowly but surely leaving it, why on earth is it a reliable assumption that casual FTA participants will start to really appreciate Super Rugby and gravitate to it in valuable numbers?

Rugby tragics here want to believe that by extrapolating their own love onto the sporting public, but unfortunately there's little hard evidence for it.

 

[Set piece magic]

I know a lot of people on here don't like the self-interest of the Sydney clubs and are sceptical of a national club comp, but is the NRC really the way forward? The whole thing just has utterly minimal community interest. I know the trend for talent development is centralisation but the teams need some kind of community interest.

As for some of the entrenched self interest in club land, fine, but can't this be challenged with rising clubs? I can see a National Club comp being very successful in a tribal respect if things were done the right way. The proposal looked like it needed a few more clubs involved in Bris for example.

The fact is the NRC was only profitable because Foxtel was prepared to run it as a major loss in the hope it would make the rest of the Australian teams more competitive and thus make money - i see no broadcast partner willing to do that in 2020.

 

[Rebel man]

Then if NRC is being chopped, why not use Country Eagles as the 12th.?

Problem with the eagles it’s one game a year here and there. Doesn’t give anyone ownership of the team

 

[RedsHappy]

I know a lot of people on here don't like the self-interest of the Sydney clubs and are sceptical of a national club comp, but is the NRC really the way forward? The whole thing just has utterly minimal community interest. I know the trend for talent development is centralisation but the teams need some kind of community interest.

As for some of the entrenched self interest in club land, fine, but can't this be challenged with rising clubs? I can see a National Club comp being very successful in a tribal respect if things were done the right way. The proposal looked like it needed a few more clubs involved in Bris for example.

The fact is the NRC was only profitable because Foxtel was prepared to run it as a major loss in the hope it would make the rest of the Australian teams more competitive and thus make money - i see no broadcast partner willing to do that in 2020.

Let's alone it's almost laughable fan irrelevance, it's also highly debatable as to whether the NRC has achieved its most ARU/RA-avowed motive - the marked performance development of a higher standard of pro-capable rugby player.

After many NRC seasons, where is the concrete evidence in today's Aust Super Rugby teams and their expressed skill levels of that assumption/hope/belief coming to reality?

So long as RA support an enhanced coaching investment in club rugby, a genuine, well run National Club Comp is far more likely to generate all of: reasonable code-supporting local media interest, improved local economics for clubs in terms of gate, F&B etc, and too an element of enhanced player development via enhanced competitiveness (without overstating that).

 

[Rebel man]

Presto and Netflix were the same platform provided by different providers as well

Lol, you can’t really compare presto something slapped together by Foxtel to beat Netflix onto the market to Foxtel v Optus. Optus has no commercial presence in pubs. I do hope Optus can become a genuine competition to Fox but they are a long way off, Fox isn’t dying it’s evolving

 

[Rebel man]

'

Why do you say 'attitude.' This is not about what I might like, desire, think re these matters.

It's about hard facts - see the statement R Davis Chair of the NSWRU made, essentially 'with even less home games in the new 2021 + format, if we don't get the same level of RA $ income as we currently have we will be headed for a financial crisis in NSW rugby'.

There were/are good grounds for what he said, it was not bluff. Our RUs are already in threadbare cost management mode and insiders regularly tell me and others that alone is seriously hurting, eg, local rugby promotion and marketing, coach and specialist support hiring and so on. RA's media-derived revenue $s are simply fundamental to our local RU's survival.

These $s will be fixed this year for 5 years, all the enhanced FTA exposure in the world will not change them upwards until 2026 - five long more years to get through - when the next media bidding round arrives. The RUs are already today looking at big $ declines in their gate income, and this too is a crucial income source for them - some might argue they may not get to 2025 on current trends without major additional cash infusions to prop them up and where will that derive from, it's unlikely.

The second flaw IMO in your (implicit) comments is that if say RA gets more FTA exposure, the 'if you show rugby for free, they will come' assumption is highly debatable.

The Aust Super product is poor, mostly. The Rebs v Tahs game was appalling in terms of skills, error rates, intensity and so on. Crowd cannot have been more than 4,000-5,000. If die-hard Foxtel subscribers that pay for the product are slowly but surely leaving it, why on earth is it a reliable assumption that casual FTA participants will start to really appreciate Super Rugby and gravitate to it in valuable numbers?

Rugby tragics here want to believe that by extrapolating their own love onto the sporting public, but unfortunately there's little hard evidence for it.

But what does FTA exposure give you? You reach a greater audience, the larger the audience you reach to more you get from sponsors.

 

[RedsHappy]

But what does FTA exposure give you? You reach a greater audience, the larger the audience you reach to more you get from sponsors.

Maybe. But (a) you need meaningful FTA numbers that are sustained season-to-season before the sponsors with meaningful $s will up their offers to local RUs or RA nationally and (b) as a result IMO the FTA build would have to happen really well by say late 2022 to have a useful $s uplift to the general Aust rugby coffers.

And as I said I find the the whole assumptions set that greater rugby FTA JUST MUST drive meaningful FTA viewing numbers outcomes highly debatable on its objective merits. The critical driver is PRODUCT QUALITY and that to me is the key lacking ingredient that, as it is today, will not drive FTA numbers even with big FTA live coverage of every single Aust Super Rugby game.

 

[Set piece magic]

It's all moot because free to air is also dying. The whole media industry is dying and will soon just be a google and facebook dystopia