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Broadcast options for Australian Rugby

Slim 293

Stirling Mortlock (74)
Can't read the article as it's behind a paywall - but there is something on Couriermail today about Nine and Stan potentially bailing out on rugby due to the amateur state of the game.

Anyone read the article and can provide some context?


I just gave it a quick glance...

It's largely a hysterical rant about the future of Australian rugby, and then halfway down a hypothetical regarding future broadcast deals.

It's a fairly predictable tabloid piece from the Murdoch empire.
 

The Marketing Pigeon

Herbert Moran (7)
The death of Australian Rugby has largely been down to the fact that the average punter doesn't have Stan Sport or know games are even on 9Gem. As much as I despise the Fairfax medias treatment of Rugby - getting back on Foxtel and more largely Kayo should be of premium importance to solidify that the game is reported on and watched by the largest possible amount of people. Every person under 30 I know has a Kayo account and have had 100's say to me they would watch games if they could just switch between NRL/AFL and Rugby.

The fact that no one mentions that you can't physically watch Super Rugby in Bars now is obscene, as its taken away the opportunity for even the most hard out rugby fans to watch a game socially.

Then replicate the league model and hire the Good Bad Rugby Aus team to do a Matty Johns style show - along with having a journalist run show, talking about stories on a panel show once a week. This would give transparency to Aus Rugby along with more media and material to be able to promote the game and keep people in touch with the game.

The game currently is lacking faces and players that the public can resonate with - we need to open up the flood gates and allow 5 players from Southern Hemisphere nations at each teams that would all still be eligible for national team selection by playing for different countries teams to ensure there are less games with zero interest aside from their domestic fan bases (i.e Damian Mckenzie playing for the Rebels or James O'connor playing for the Highlanders while still allowing International eligibility). By capping the amount of players you still have ample pathways, keep the 5 franchises and benefit off the fact that we can recruit players to play in world cities such as Melbourne to strengthen the franchises. This also brings other Wallabies that were overseas home by strengthening the product of the competition with less blow out games and increased fan engagement.

Social Media Campaigns like the ones done with the Warriors and Dolphins this year are examples of getting back engagement with fans and the general public to generate support. I've also been a big fan of Rugby Pass's coverage across social media this World Cup and have had a handful of non rugby friends sending me content saying wow, how good is this.

You then run an extensive marketing campaign to be able to rebrand the game and show off players personalities, large issue with Rugby Union is the players are put down for showing any personality where as in 2011 the game was thriving with exciting players like Quade Cooper, Digby Ioane (dancing after tries) and Will Genia that all gave you insight into personalities and were house hold names.

With the amount of content through the home Rugby World Cup, Renewed Super Rugby and keeping Eddie Jones (as it looks like we have to do) for media buzz we will have an improved product to sell at an increased price that just $33M Per Year.
 

LeCheese

Greg Davis (50)
I just gave it a quick glance...

It's largely a hysterical rant about the future of Australian rugby, and then halfway down a hypothetical regarding future broadcast deals.

It's a fairly predictable tabloid piece from the Murdoch empire.
Sounds just like it could be a reprint of Code's then:

Australian rugby faces becoming an amateur sport, such is the disastrous decline of the game overseen by decades of failed administrative and coaching decisions.
Dismayed rugby officials and supporters could not find any positives after the Wallabies were hammered by a record 40-6 margin by Wales in their World Cup pool match, which is set to see them eliminated next week before the quarter-finals.

The flow-on effect of the result will be debilitating for an already struggling code.

Sponsors will walk, memberships will drop, talented players will head to league or overseas clubs, broadcasting interest will dry up, and jobs will be lost.

Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan’s “captain’s call” decision to sack Dave Rennie and hire Eddie Jones at the start of the year has proved a catastrophic blunder.

Jones has completely lost the trust of the Australian rugby public and will be given his marching orders if RA wants to retain any of their dwindling fan base.

There is no overstating how much damage has been caused by Jones and this World Cup campaign. To watch Australians, who’d paid a small fortune, walk out of the Parc Olympique Lyonnais stadium with 10 minutes remaining will have told the RA board all they need to know.

The board members are as culpable as anyone in this debacle.

Fans are demanding a complete clear-out. Even if that were to happen, there is no guarantee rugby can be saved here.

As one high-ranking official predicted on Monday, Super Rugby is likely to become the code’s version of the A-League, with Australia’s best talent playing oversees and only assembling for Wallabies duty, like the Socceroos.

And with the already low ratings and attendances, the game may have no choice but to revert to amateur status.

THE MONEY

McLennan and his board had been banking on receiving private equity funding to prop up the game’s finances.

But that has gone down the gurgler.

Investment firms told RA they’d get nowhere near what they believe they’ll get – up to $70 million – for a future broadcast deal, and so offered them peanuts.

Those investment experts should know. And after the pitiful performance at the World Cup and the scathing reaction from long-suffering supporters, this will be one of the toughest products to sell in an already crowded market.

RA had hoped for $200 million from private equity. Now they go cap in hand to banks asking for $90 million in loans, $65 million to keep the game alive and $25 million to cover the money they’ve already spent from a $40 million World Rugby loan that kept them afloat during the Covid years.

RA is selling a vision that millions will be made when the British & Irish Lions tour here in 2025, and when Australia hosts the 2027 World Cup.

But when there’s not a Wallabies fan that will believe their team can win a single Test against the Lions, the appeal of the series dramatically diminishes.

Much of the money generated will go towards repaying loans, and operational costs.

Nine and Stan Sport have the rights to rugby until the end of 2025, but already have suggested they won’t be paying what they are now – $27 million cash annually – to renew.

Industry insiders say Nine and Stan are building a war chest to make a bold bid for exclusive rights to the NRL when the current deal with Nine and pay television network Fox Sports expires at the end of the 2027 season.

There will be little money for rugby from Nine, and other broadcasters won’t be throwing cash at the game.

A home World Cup will obviously rate well, but the problem for RA is that they do not have the rights to the tournament – World Rugby does, and will sell them to the highest bidder.

RA will make money from tickets and sponsorship deals, but the market will be flimsy over the next 12 months when they most need the money.

THE MOVE

Since the glory years under Rod Macqueen, the Wallabies have gone through a carousel of coaches, none who’ve won a World Cup, or poached back the Bledisloe Cup since 2002.

Rennie had a poor record, winning only 38 per cent of Tests, but had planned a World Cup campaign for three years, and built a strong team of assistants including Dan McKellar, Matt Taylor and Laurie Fisher.

McLennan wanted Jones, and when England’s RFU sacked him for poor performances, he made his move.

McLennan and board director Phil Waugh convinced the board that Jones was worth the risk. However, then chief executive Andy Marinos wasn’t convinced.

Jones wanted a five year deal starting immediately, agreeing to a pay cut in 2023 of around $750,000, before his $1.2 million a year salary kicked in from 2024.

Marinos was on holiday in South Africa when he received word that the deal with Jones had been done, and he had to jump on a 6am Zoom call to notify Rennie of his axing.

It was the beginning of the end of the relationship between Marinos and McLennan. When McLennan then compiled a $5.35 million, three-year deal for NRL star Joseph-Aukuso Sua'ali'i, Marinos questioned the deal.

Not long after the announcement, Marinos stepped down as CEO, and Waugh was given the job.

Jones entered the fray generating headlines and bringing the type of publicity RA craved.

The RFU was stunned that Australia had signed him, given Jones’ history in England for churning through assistant coaches and staff members.

But hopeful Wallabies fans believed they were getting the Jones who had taken Australia to the 2003 World Cup final, helped South Africa win in 2007, led Japan to the biggest upset in tournament history defeating the Boks in 2015, and taking England to the 2019 decider.

What Jones has delivered instead is a collection of bewildering selections, resulting in seven losses from eight games.

And on the eve of the Wales clash, revelations that he’d been interviewing for the Japan head coaching role days before his team played their World Cup warm-up match against France has severed any faith fans have in him.

THE FUTURE

Already, there are some within the corridors of power in Australian rugby who are keen to get McKellar back from English club Leicester to replace Jones.

Whether they’d be forced to pay out Jones – RA is still paying Rennie, who was contracted until the end of the World Cup – and pay a release fee to Leicester for McKellar will be significant factors.

But McKellar, who was being groomed by Rennie as his replacement for the Wallabies top job, could likely bring the respected Fisher back with him. The pair left when Jones took up the job.

The aftermath of this World Cup will be bloody.

Super Rugby clubs had planned to put out their membership offers soon. With the bitter taste of the Wallabies’ performances, they’re now reconsidering.

And there is no way they trust RA to handle their finances under the proposed centralisation model that would see the national body take over the franchises.

Given what’s transpired over the past 12 months, they can’t be blamed for their reticence. It means there will be continued division between the states and RA, a long-running battle that has crippled progress.

Next June, Australia’s World Cup conquerors are set to visit, with officials working on two Tests against Wales and one against Fiji at home.

How many people turn up depends on the actions of RA over the next few weeks.
 

Ignoto

Peter Sullivan (51)
I swear you can see the generational divide in posters who want us back on foxtel as "no-one has Stan".

Foxtel is one of the reasons union is in the state it's currently in. Sub par watching experiences full of hosts that didn't give a crap about the product they were serving up to us.

Hard bloody pass on returning to that abusive ex.
 

The Ghost of Raelene

Simon Poidevin (60)
Personally never had a buggy experience on Kayo but I suspect it’s my internet as an old address it would be pretty bad at times.

Id be happy to stay with Stan. Getting the Club Rugby on there has been great and games on FTA.
 

The_Brown_Hornet

John Eales (66)
I've got both Kayo and Stan and I'm a Gen X'er! I wouldn't trade the streaming experience with sport for anything now. It's so superior it's not funny.
 

Rebel man

John Thornett (49)
The ARU needs to move away from Stan, we wonder why so many of the young blokes are going to league and the answer is quite clear. The NRL has games on 8 games shown every weekend on either 9 or FoxLeague, yet the ARU is forcing parents to fork out $10 a month to watch any super rugby match and all Wallabies test matches, the occasional home game is shown on free to air. How are we meant to move away from this elitist product when we lose a whole demographic of young people who can’t afford the additional $10 bill each month?
Kayo fucking sucks. Best thing we did was leave them
 

footy1>31

Charlie Fox (21)
Interesting the hate towards Fox/Kayo. Being in that eco-system incredibly important imo, nobody casual going to buy Stan sport just for rugby anymore. Think next broadcast has to get incredibly creative around maximising audiences particularly for marquee games. Thursday night's after Origin (when no NRL is on) is very much a future slot.
The Kayo/Fox product will become less valuable if ESPN launch their own service here like they have done in the States. A lot of the content they promote now is coming via the US market.
ESPN have no reason to discontinue the partnership especially due to strength of Kayo so that is at least 10 years away.

Growth of AFL/NRL casual audiences risen due to the interest of the gambling dollar. Offerings on rugby in Australia are completely inferior and no money is pumped into innovating the product, instead RA charges nonsense fees that stifle any interest being developed that way. (Yes I'm aware that ppl on here are very anti gambling but it is a commercial reality of elite sport in this country).

Will be interesting to see what Stan/9 do.
 

John S

Chilla Wilson (44)
The death of Australian Rugby has largely been down to the fact that the average punter doesn't have Stan Sport or know games are even on 9Gem. As much as I despise the Fairfax medias treatment of Rugby - getting back on Foxtel and more largely Kayo should be of premium importance to solidify that the game is reported on and watched by the largest possible amount of people. Every person under 30 I know has a Kayo account and have had 100's say to me they would watch games if they could just switch between NRL/AFL and Rugby.

The fact that no one mentions that you can't physically watch Super Rugby in Bars now is obscene, as its taken away the opportunity for even the most hard out rugby fans to watch a game socially.

Then replicate the league model and hire the Good Bad Rugby Aus team to do a Matty Johns style show - along with having a journalist run show, talking about stories on a panel show once a week. This would give transparency to Aus Rugby along with more media and material to be able to promote the game and keep people in touch with the game.

The game currently is lacking faces and players that the public can resonate with - we need to open up the flood gates and allow 5 players from Southern Hemisphere nations at each teams that would all still be eligible for national team selection by playing for different countries teams to ensure there are less games with zero interest aside from their domestic fan bases (i.e Damian Mckenzie playing for the Rebels or James O'connor playing for the Highlanders while still allowing International eligibility). By capping the amount of players you still have ample pathways, keep the 5 franchises and benefit off the fact that we can recruit players to play in world cities such as Melbourne to strengthen the franchises. This also brings other Wallabies that were overseas home by strengthening the product of the competition with less blow out games and increased fan engagement.

Social Media Campaigns like the ones done with the Warriors and Dolphins this year are examples of getting back engagement with fans and the general public to generate support. I've also been a big fan of Rugby Pass's coverage across social media this World Cup and have had a handful of non rugby friends sending me content saying wow, how good is this.

You then run an extensive marketing campaign to be able to rebrand the game and show off players personalities, large issue with Rugby Union is the players are put down for showing any personality where as in 2011 the game was thriving with exciting players like Quade Cooper, Digby Ioane (dancing after tries) and Will Genia that all gave you insight into personalities and were house hold names.

With the amount of content through the home Rugby World Cup, Renewed Super Rugby and keeping Eddie Jones (as it looks like we have to do) for media buzz we will have an improved product to sell at an increased price that just $33M Per Year.
Did you just start watching?

Since Rugby went onto Stan/9:
- There is at least one Super Rugby rugby game on FTA per week when before there was none
- Club rugby is being shown on Stan when before it was not

Yeah, ok, you can't watch rugby in pubs on Stan. Since when was it realistically being shown in pubs on Fox previously? Probably only shown when there were no other sports being played at the same time.

That horse racing guy really tied all that up by disallowing Stan to put a feed into pubs etc.

Putting Rugby onto Fox - where it was hidden completely was one of things behind the decline.
 

footy1>31

Charlie Fox (21)
Did you just start watching?

Since Rugby went onto Stan/9:
- There is at least one Super Rugby rugby game on FTA per week when before there was none
- Club rugby is being shown on Stan when before it was not

Yeah, ok, you can't watch rugby in pubs on Stan. Since when was it realistically being shown in pubs on Fox previously? Probably only shown when there were no other sports being played at the same time.

That horse racing guy really tied all that up by disallowing Stan to put a feed into pubs etc.

Putting Rugby onto Fox - where it was hidden completely was one of things behind the decline.
how many people are going to actively seek out a fta game though? the ratings for that reflect the interest and are garbage.

Yes club rugby has seen major improvements from having one game a week on ABC. But really who is this product for? Anyone who actually cares about the game would be at their local club/school footy. I suspect with the ease of actually broadcasting these games getting a lot easier over the last 5 years there is progress made towards clubs just streaming the game on youtube, not hard to set up and pay an aspiring commentator $50 to call the game.

It definitely was on at the pubs more than you imply
 

Rebel man

John Thornett (49)
Interesting the hate towards Fox/Kayo. Being in that eco-system incredibly important imo, nobody casual going to buy Stan sport just for rugby anymore. Think next broadcast has to get incredibly creative around maximising audiences particularly for marquee games. Thursday night's after Origin (when no NRL is on) is very much a future slot.

ESPN have no reason to discontinue the partnership especially due to strength of Kayo so that is at least 10 years away.

Growth of AFL/NRL casual audiences risen due to the interest of the gambling dollar. Offerings on rugby in Australia are completely inferior and no money is pumped into innovating the product, instead Rugby Australia charges nonsense fees that stifle any interest being developed that way. (Yes I'm aware that ppl on here are very anti gambling but it is a commercial reality of elite sport in this country).

Will be interesting to see what Stan/9 do.
As stated Stan will try and get the NRL in 27. So we move back to Kayo then everyone will complain we are on a different platform to the NRL
 

PhilClinton

Mark Loane (55)
A lot of NRL and rugby comparisons happening lately. Fans of both games will remember the NRL went through a slump a number of years back. It was being called out for being over officiated and one-dimensional (I know that is the opinion held by many here regardless). So they came up with the idea to run the pre-season 9s tournament to start some hype about the game again, showcase lots of high scoring and open running footy.

The 9s tournament as a concept has died off now, but it served its purpose to show the public all the young and exciting players and helped the NRL develop some of their rule changes which are in place now.

Maybe Super Rugby should bring back the 10s for a year or two and try and build similar engagement.
 

sterlingmortlocksgloves

Herbert Moran (7)
You don't like movies?

It's a better performing platform... Kayo is a buggy mess, and Foxtel is a dying medium.

Fox also treated the game poorly and were offering peanuts.
I quite enjoy watching movies on Netflix, a platform that actually gives ya good stuff unlike Stan. Only good thing Stan has is the ability to watch games from when the wallabies were good, but you can find those on YouTube for free
 

Jimmy_Crouch

Ken Catchpole (46)
Yeah, ok, you can't watch rugby in pubs on Stan. Since when was it realistically being shown in pubs on Fox previously? Probably only shown when there were no other sports being played at the same time.
I still don't completely understand the rules around this. My local (The Regatta Hotel) has both Stan and Foxtel.
 
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