Broadcast options for Australian Rugby

[JRugby2]

The gritty stuff of seeing players go through the daily rigmarole gets viewers in. Something about single camera type scenes of the taxi driver talking about his side or a player struggling in physio is interesting. CA did it pretty well with Amazon I thought.

Watching Ellis Genge drive around his home town for me was just a bit too staged. I think people would rather just have them watch him work out and have a normal day.



It's why people have loved Hard Knocks in the NFL. It's one week behind so it's still news cycle worthy and you look forward to an episode because you've read the article but now want to see it play out.

Fine, I'll watch it again...

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

The fact Sunderland is likely going to be in the playoffs for Premier League promotion this year makes looking back on the early season of that show all the more fun when they are sliding into irrelevance.

 

[whitefalcon]

The closest thing I can point to is, about a decade, the then Greenedge Cycling (the Australian Pro Cycling team owned by Gerry Ryan) had a guy call Dan Jones film all the behind the scenes footage of the large cycling races (i.e. TDF/Giro/Vuelta) and he'd upload what happened that day. It was fantastic to watch every morning post stage and really brought you inside the team.

The backstage passes were lightning in a bottle.

He really showed the personalities behind the team and you felt like you were there with them.

I'm amazed more teams don't do this. Its effectively hiring one more backroom staff member to produce GOOD content that drives fan engagement.

Imagine if each team had something like this week by week during the season. Showing some of the week's training and feedback (without giving away tactics)

It needs to be longer format then IG etc though IMHO

Edit: im off to watch Hayman's Paris-Roubaix win episode

 

[Rhino_rugby]

The backstage passes were lightning in a bottle.

He really showed the personalities behind the team and you felt like you were there with them.

I'm amazed more teams don't do this. Its effectively hiring one more backroom staff member to produce GOOD content that drives fan engagement.

Imagine if each team had something like this week by week during the season. Showing some of the week's training and feedback (without giving away tactics)

It needs to be longer format then IG etc though IMHO

Edit: im off to watch Hayman's Paris-Roubaix win episode

Spot on! The backstage passes captured the team’s personality and pulled fans in.
It’s a no-brainer for engagement teams should invest in this regularly. A longer format beyond IG would make it even better. Enjoy the Hayman episode!"

 

[Wilson]

The AFR is reporting a $210 million, 5-year deal with Nine/Stan ($42 million per year). Also includes $30 million in "performance incentives" for wallabies and super sides. Don't have AFR access so I can't see the full content unfortunately.

Wallabies stand to bank millions under new TV bonus linked to wins

Nine is in the final stages of securing a new five-year deal to broadcast rugby union worth more than $210 million that pays up if the Wallabies can turn their form around.

www.afr.com

On the face of it this is a minor win - A solid step up (particularly spread between 4 super sides instead of 5), but not the $50 million threshold that has been touted as needed. Still more opportunities in the pipeline though - nations championship would add more to this once its sorted for example.

 

[Derpus]

Doesn't sound like much of a win... That's probably not even inflation on the last deal.

 

[Ignoto]

Don't have AFR access so I can't see the full content unfortunately.

Unsure if I will get a spanking posting the entire article so I have taken a leaf out of Rhino's books;

Rugby Australia is finalizing a significant broadcast agreement with Nine Entertainment Co., introducing performance-based financial incentives. Here's a detailed breakdown:

• Performance-Based Incentives: The proposed five-year deal, valued at over $210 million, includes bonuses linked to the Wallabies' match victories. This structure is designed to reward Rugby Australia with additional revenue for each win, potentially amounting to millions of dollars.
• Broadcast Rights: Nine Entertainment Co. is in the final stages of securing this new contract to broadcast rugby union. The agreement aims to enhance the sport's visibility and popularity by leveraging Nine's extensive reach across free-to-air television and its streaming platform, Stan Sport.
• Financial Implications: This performance-linked deal could substantially improve Rugby Australia's financial standing. The more successful the Wallabies are on the field, the greater the financial rewards, providing a direct correlation between team performance and revenue.
• Strategic Focus: Aligning financial incentives with on-field success is intended to motivate the team and boost audience engagement. This strategy reflects a broader effort to revitalize Australian rugby by directly connecting financial rewards to team performance, thereby encouraging a culture of excellence and increasing the sport's appeal to fans and sponsors alike.
• Comparison to Previous Deal: The new agreement represents a significant increase from the previous three-year deal with Nine, which was valued at approximately $100 million. The current deal not only offers a higher base value but also introduces performance-based incentives, potentially leading to even greater financial benefits for Rugby Australia.

This initiative underscores a strategic effort to rejuvenate Australian rugby, emphasizing the importance of team success in driving financial stability and growth.

 

[Strewthcobber]

Will be interesting to see the details - it sounds like this new bonus structure will be the fine print that makes the difference

$210 million over 5 years, with another $30m as a potential bonus, is pretty different to $210m including a potential $30m bonus

 

[LeCheese]

Have we seen a performance incentive of this nature from a broadcaster before? Interesting model - don't hate it

 

[Wilson]

Have we seen a performance incentive of this nature from a broadcaster before? Interesting model - don't hate it

I don't think so, it wouldn't make sense for most other Australian sports (maybe Soccer and Cricket to a degree), but with the properly international structure of our game from Super Rugby up it makes some sense. It'd be really interesting to see how much is wallabies specifically and what sort of incentive there is for Super Rugby success.

 

[JRugby2]

Have we seen a performance incentive of this nature from a broadcaster before? Interesting model - don't hate it

Not in Australia.

There are anecdotal reports of revenue share agreements in place that are linked to world cup performance (US soccer apparently has this) but understandably the finer details of these are kept under lock and key

 

[Adam84]

Doesn't sound like much of a win... That's probably not even inflation on the last deal.

Devils in the detail, like Strewth mentioned;

If it's $210 million over 5 years with an additional $30million on offer then it's well ahead of inflation, if it's $210 million and $30million of that is made up of incentive bonuses and RA achieve all of those, then it's marginally ahead of inflation. But if it's $210million and RA don't achieve those incentive bonuses, then it's below inflation.


*$40million p.a. - Exsisting 20-25 Broadcast Deal
$48million p.a. - $210 million + additional $30million incentives
$42million p.a. - $210 million (achieved $30million incentives)
$36million p.a. - $180 million (didn't achieve incentives)

**2020 figures factored for inflation

So depending which one of those it is, it's overall a net increase and could exceed inflation.
This doesn't address the contra-cash advertising topic either, all these figures are total costs and don't break down cash vs advertising.

 

[Adam84]

Interesting though that we haven't seen a decrease in broadcast rights value on offer with the demise of the Rebels..

 

[JRugby2]

Devils in the detail, like Strewth mentioned;

If it's $210 million over 5 years with an additional $30million on offer then it's well ahead of inflation, if it's $210 million and $30million of that is made up of incentive bonuses and RA achieve all of those, then it's marginally ahead of inflation. But if it's $210million and RA don't achieve those incentive bonuses, then it's below inflation.


*$40million p.a. - Exsisting 20-25 Broadcast Deal
$48million p.a. - $210 million + additional $30million incentives
$42million p.a. - $210 million (achieved $30million incentives)
$36million p.a. - $180 million (didn't achieve incentives)

**2020 figures factored for inflation

So depending which one of those it is, it's overall a net increase and could exceed inflation.
This doesn't address the contra-cash advertising topic either, all these figures are total costs and don't break down cash vs advertising.

In a way this is kind of a redundant point by way of comparing deals if they are built into all of them.

 

[Derpus]

Devils in the detail, like Strewth mentioned;

If it's $210 million over 5 years with an additional $30million on offer then it's well ahead of inflation, if it's $210 million and $30million of that is made up of incentive bonuses and RA achieve all of those, then it's marginally ahead of inflation. But if it's $210million and RA don't achieve those incentive bonuses, then it's below inflation.


*$40million p.a. - Exsisting 20-25 Broadcast Deal
$48million p.a. - $210 million + additional $30million incentives
$42million p.a. - $210 million (achieved $30million incentives)
$36million p.a. - $180 million (didn't achieve incentives)

**2020 figures factored for inflation

So depending which one of those it is, it's overall a net increase and could exceed inflation.
This doesn't address the contra-cash advertising topic either, all these figures are total costs and don't break down cash vs advertising.

Surely they haven't agreed to a lesser deal with the possibility of maybe making a tiny bit more if the Wallabies win every match (given we are almost certainly only going to win 40-50% at best)?

 

[JRugby2]

Surely they haven't agreed to a lesser deal with the possibility of maybe making a tiny bit more if the Wallabies win every match (given we are almost certainly only going to win 40-50% at best)?

You'd hope not,

But at the same time beggars can't be choosers. It's hard to imagine we had that many suiters that we could have played off against each other.

 

[Adam84]

In a way this is kind of a redundant point by way of comparing deals if they are built into all of them.

Sure, but it was to caveat any expectation that a bigger broadcast deal may generate more money for RA.. It could, in some circumstances, not achieve that even with an overall net increase.

You are right, though; you would expect that it's a percentage of cash/advertising from overall value and would remain consistent between each broadcast deal, but there may be cases where the broadcaster/sport may want to push it less or more.

 

[Slim 293]

I see it's being reported that Nine put in an offer into buy Foxtel, but were short around $1bn...

 

[Strewthcobber]

Anyone see if it included the new Nations Championship or was it excluded?

 

[Adam84]

Anyone see if it included the new Nations Championship or was it excluded?

That's not included