Lions tour the carrot for Nine TV deal

[travelling_gerry]

Lions tour the carrot for Nine TV deal

GREG GROWDEN

March 18, 2010
The 2013 British and Irish Lions tour to Australia is being used as a lure to convince the Nine Network into becoming both the free-to-air rugby league and rugby union channel.
The details of the new SANZAR broadcasting deal with News Corporation for 2011-15 was expected to be announced this week, but will be delayed for up to a month due to negotiations with Australian free-to-air networks. While the pay-TV operator Foxtel will remain the rights holder for both Super rugby and the Test matches involving the Wallabies, the Premier Media Group – which runs the Fox Sports network and is on-selling the free-to-air rights – is negotiating with two free-to-air networks, understood to be Channel Seven and Nine. It is believed the Ten Network is no longer interested in the free-to-air rights for Tri Nations matches and home Tests involving the Wallabies. The Herald has been told Nine
Network executives were recently approached in a bid to convince them to be the home station of both rugby codes. It has received little publicity, but the Nine Network has secured the rights to the next two rugby World Cups, in 2011 and 2015. This has prompted those involved in the SANZAR broadcasting negotiations to stress the advantages of being in charge of the free-to-air rugby content in between those tournaments, as it will involve a three-Test British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, in mid-2013.


http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/un...0317-qfll.html

[The Man]

Rubbish, SBS is going for Rugby

[shasta]

When a football code has to go out and lobby for someone to take the FTA rights it does not point to any golden future. The AFL and, to a lesser extent NRL, have networks brawling to get the FTA rights.

If Channel Nien gets the rights we can look forward to many more years of late night replays

I love my Foxtel.

[The Man]

When a football code has to go out and lobby for someone to take the FTA rights it does not point to any golden future. The AFL and to a lesser extent the NRL have networks brawling to get the FTA rights.

Not likely, neither will get the 1 Billion for 5 years they are dreaming of

[shasta]

Not likely, neither will get the 1 Billion for 5 years they are dreaming of

What's that got to do with anything? The point is about whether various networks are interested, not what the final figure will be.

[jargan83]

The AFL and, to a lesser extent NRL, have networks brawling to get the FTA rights.

That was the main point of Shasta's arguement and he is correct, there are currently 3 FTA networks climbing over each other to secure both AFL and NRL. What the final figures are obviously no one will know until the agreements are announced.

[The Man]

The networks ARE interested! But the game is SOOOO expensive for the FTA networks, so they can't afford it and News won't sell any of it on!

[jargan83]

Right......

[The Man]

I won't argue with u Jar

[jargan83]

If the game "is too expensive" then the ARU/SANZAR has priced them out of the market in terms of what FTA networks are willing to pay

[Burgs]

...Channel Nien...

German owned???

[TOCC]

The Man is correct, the ARU/SANZAR/NEWS would have set out a figure to the networks of what they want, after a few rounds of negotiating Ten has pulled out and Seven and Nine are still there.

Its happens for other codes as well, in previous years networks have pulled out of negotiating for the AFL/NRL because the price was above what they are willing to pay.

Might not be the highest rating events on TV, but they are still worth quite a substantial amount when it comes to advertising time slots, rugby provides access to a niche market in comparison to NRL and AFL.

[GIGS20]

Its happens for other codes as well, in previous years networks have pulled out of negotiating for the AFL/NRL because the price was above what they are willing to pay.

I'm sure there have also been recent times where a party has pulled away from the table, only to rejoin the negotiations later on.

It's all bullshit, don't read anything into what happens until the deal is inked!

[jargan83]

The Man is correct, the ARU/SANZAR/NEWS would have set out a figure to the networks of what they want, after a few rounds of negotiating Ten has pulled out and Seven and Nine are still there.

Its happens for other codes as well, in previous years networks have pulled out of negotiating for the AFL/NRL because the price was above what they are willing to pay.

Might not be the highest rating events on TV, but they are still worth quite a substantial amount when it comes to advertising time slots, rugby provides access to a niche market in comparison to NRL and AFL.

I agree with that assessment. Negotiation is the key word, how much are the FTA willing to fork out to show the games or on the other hand how much is the ARU/SANZAR willing to accept

As Shasta said above, I love my Foxtel

Networks didn't pull out of the AFL race, Channel 7 owned the right to bid last and came back with a massive amount with Ch 10 and the AFL went with them

My understanding is the NRL rights didn't even go out to tender, Gallop and co at NRL Headquarters just sold the rights to Ch 9 and Foxtel