How much additional revenue has the ARU received from the SANZAAR TV deal due to the existence of the Rebels?
I know you will defend the ARU to the death BH, you have relentlessly defended, excused and rationalised against criticism virtually the whole Australian rugby status quo here for many years. You are of course entitled to that misguided perspective, however tragically wrong, as I sincerely admire your genuine, obvious passion for all things rugby. As we die away here, it is the deep, hyper-loyal fans like you who will in many senses be hurt the most.
Above, you miss the point, fundamentally.
In any business it is never the immediate profit equation that
ultimately matters - and I truly doubt the Rebels has been profitable in the sense you infer as their crowd and viewership levels (the latter as a key marker of business value to any Pay TV company) have always been comparatively poor - but rather is the investment policy overall and the investment decisions you are making as a business, for example:
(a) the right investment decision vs other competing strategic priorities and
(b) with limited financial and other resources how does a CEO and board ensure a proper balance between absolute growth and the enhancement of the quality of that business' underlying product that will enable that growth to be competitively excellent (vs alternatives) and long-lasting
so as to sustain the business in the longer term. For many businesses this is typically termed 'product investment', 'investment in improved quality, or 'R&D'.
There is no soundness in saying something like 'we will rapidly expand our network as someone will pay us a short-term gain to do that as they want immediate bulk volume only' if that expansion is not, over the medium- to long-term, balanced by the investments essential to ensure the underlying quality of product being provided by such a network expansion is good enough to ultimately sustain the enlarged costs and risks of funding that network.
Finally, it's largely a myth that Australia's Super rugby volumetric expansion has actually been central to the obtaining of higher global media $ revenues for the ARU. Rather, the ARU's media increases were principally driven by a Super-rights bidding war in the UK fuelled by TV operators there fear that their lunch was being rapidly eaten away by streaming services and why 'owning' live sport rights was their best defensive antidote to that rationally-based fear.
Whether this UK Super rights $ premium can ever be repeated - or rather whether it is likely to materially die away especially with Super viewership in decline as the product quality declines (except in NZ) - is already being hotly debated today in global rugby media circles.
