Is rugby league history about to repeat itself?
Roar Guru 
Gus Gould - love him or hate him? He doesn't care. Image: Paul Miller / AAP
Related coverage
Rugby league broke away from Channel Nine and went to Channel Ten a couple of years before the Super League war broke out.
Channel 10 paid more than Channel nine and rugby league had finally cast off the ball and chain of Consolidated Press.
News had recently sold Channel Ten and were in full support of rugby league.
Channel Ten went broke, and Kerry Packer offered well under what Channel Ten had paid to get rugby league back. Consolidated Press had rugby league by the balls.
Everyone knows what followed this – absolute chaos, leading to two competitions and a bunch of new teams.
Now, depending on what you read, rugby league finally has a solid media deal. But is it a solid deal?
Reports in The Australian are saying it’s just a matter of time before the receivers are brought in.
The article said, in part, “The potential receivership of Nine Entertainment is now a real threat amid a critical debt covenant test for the group at the end of the month.”
According to sources, CVC Asia Pacific and financiers have been forced to all but abandon hope for a strategic buyer for Nine, Australia’s second-placed free-to-air network.
Sources close to the debt negotiations said yesterday only two distinct possibilities now remained for the company: agreement between lead banker Goldman Sachs and the hedge funds that own Nine’s debt; or receivership if Nine management does not have the confidence to sign off the annual accounts at the end of next month or early November.
Will another channel wait for the collapse? Will a new owner cause a the collapse of existing contracts?
The answer to my second question greatly depends on the new structure of Channel Nine, but if smart they would but the assets of the station.
I wonder aloud if rugby league history is about to repeat itself.
- Explore:
- Channel Nine, NRL, Rugby League
September 19th 2012 @ 7:15am
Boomshanka said | September 19th 2012 @ 7:15am | Report comment
Wishing Channel Nine (the home of hoarding) a long and painful death.
Having to endure Nine’s so called commitment to sport over the last 10 years, I would hate to see a quick solution, rather let the receivers instigate a slow financial paralysis.
The only thing the ARLC did correct with the new media deal, was insist on an up front payment for the first year.
September 19th 2012 @ 7:41am
oikee said | September 19th 2012 @ 7:41am | Report comment
Another super league war would probably be good for the sport. They could expand and hopefully the Chinese get involved this time around, make it real interesting.
I dont think this will happen, but if it did, bring it on i say. The code would be in a better position to deal with a war.
Expansion areas are ripe for the picking, plus the interest and world news it would deliver is priceless.
I try to think on the bright side.
I wont be losing sleep over this, it just wont happen. ?
September 19th 2012 @ 7:48am
Don Marl said | September 19th 2012 @ 7:48am | Report comment
I wouldn’t be sorry if they did fold. Don’t see superleague happening again and whilst there would be some short term financial pain, it would be good longer term. I think the ARLC had this in mind when it secured the up front money. Buys them breathing space should the best (sorry worst) happen.
September 19th 2012 @ 9:28am
Rabby said | September 19th 2012 @ 9:28am | Report comment
I agree, nine is useless and I was very disappointed when they won the franchise again. Judging by his face, so was Grant. I think that something went on here behind the scenes that was a little less than morally kosher. Probably lawyer stuff that gave 9 the advantage. If they went bust and say 10 picked up the rights, most fans would be happy. Hope grant has a penalty clause in there to cover for such an event.
September 19th 2012 @ 8:57am
Sailosi said | September 19th 2012 @ 8:57am | Report comment
I’ve heard many people make mention of this before, i still can’t see how Aussie channels can afford to pay as much as they do for sport without going broke. When you look at the ratings figures they are actually quite small and in a small market area as well. The finals for the afl and nrl series rate between 800,000 to 1.3 million ina country of onll 22 million. Can somebody please explain to me how this is viable?
September 19th 2012 @ 9:31am
Rabby said | September 19th 2012 @ 9:31am | Report comment
Compared to the broadcast rights for films and drama / comedy shows they are cheap television. Only moronic reality shows are cheaper which is why we get so many of them.
September 19th 2012 @ 4:39pm
mushi said | September 19th 2012 @ 4:39pm | Report comment
Are you sure Rabby? The criticisms of both major deals were that you can’t really justify the price tags based on how much advertising revenue they should generate. So if you’re right in saying that sport is cheap TV then this would suggest then that if cheap television can’t justify the price tag that even a 100% equity funded TV network is destined for bankruptcy
September 19th 2012 @ 9:34am
Rabby said | September 19th 2012 @ 9:34am | Report comment
Oh and have you seen what they charge for a 20 sec ad lately ?
September 19th 2012 @ 12:36pm
Matt said | September 19th 2012 @ 12:36pm | Report comment
Exactly. I don’t see how they can do such big % increases a year where the revenue is not going up by the same amount. It’s unsustainable.
September 19th 2012 @ 12:45pm
Dayer said | September 19th 2012 @ 12:45pm | Report comment
1.3m is excellent viewership and do not let the the 22m pop. fool you. work on a average of maybe 4 people per TV or somthing.
1.3m VIEWERS attract more big returns in ADS for NINE.
September 26th 2012 @ 8:35am
Redb said | September 26th 2012 @ 8:35am | Report comment
AFL prelim finals rated 1.8M and 2.2M.
September 19th 2012 @ 9:54am
Josh said | September 19th 2012 @ 9:54am | Report comment
A key gap in ratings systems and one reason that sport recieves more money then perhaps other programming is that the rating system measures programs the sample people watch in thier home and doesen’t take into account television watched in common places such as pubs or bars (whioch are more likely to have sport viewed then a cooking show for example). So the 1.3 Million is based on people in the sample watching from home.
September 19th 2012 @ 6:25pm
p.Tah said | September 19th 2012 @ 6:25pm | Report comment
Do you watch the ads when you’re at the pub?
September 19th 2012 @ 10:31am
TC said | September 19th 2012 @ 10:31am | Report comment
I think each sport only ever has one super war type crisis in them – the lessons learned stays with everyone forever – no one ever goes back for seconds except for the wailings of a few extremists.
The VFL had its war back in 1897.
Cricket in 1977.
League in 1997.
No one ever goes back for seconds.
TC
September 19th 2012 @ 12:11pm
Col Quinn said | September 19th 2012 @ 12:11pm | Report comment
TC,
the Australian Rules “war” continued through to the 1990s, until dirty tactics by the then VFL (now AFL) forced the VFA (now VFL) into surrender. As an old VFA supporter I cant forget or forgive! Much like a North Sydney Bear.
CQ
September 19th 2012 @ 12:39pm
Billo Boy said | September 19th 2012 @ 12:39pm | Report comment
@ Col. What then do you make of V/AFL trying to assign to itself all the VFA premiership winners history! http://australianfootball.com/articles/view/Rethinking+the+historical+record/161
September 19th 2012 @ 1:58pm
Col Quinn said | September 19th 2012 @ 1:58pm | Report comment
Billo,
It is about tie the history of the VFA was recognised and the rules and player difference between VFA and VFL acknowledged. The true history of the code might then be better understood by younger Aussie Rules supporters. However, as my brother said, this just might be the AFL trying to steal someone else’s history, like they have done with everything else. There is still a lot of bitterness in some of the old VFA supporters. I don’t think the same applies to the ARL/Super League War, except, as I said before, if you are North Sydney Bear.
September 21st 2012 @ 4:47pm
Chino said | September 21st 2012 @ 4:47pm | Report comment
What that is saying is that their should be recognition for the best teams in Victoria pre the advent of the VFL (now AFL) in 1897 and that clubs such as Collingwood, Essendon and Geelong should recognise and place as much importance on their VFA premierships as on their VFL premierships. This ties in with a lot of what Australian Football web site is trying to achieve which is the recognition of the achievements within Australian Football outside the confines of the AFL such as in the VFA, SANFL, WAFL as well as the Tasmanian competitions and elsewhere. On that note the Australian Football website reminds me somewhat of RL1908 website that used to exist which I found helpful in understanding the history of Rugby League, Rugby Union and somewhat on Australian Football as well.
September 19th 2012 @ 12:06pm
Midfielder said | September 19th 2012 @ 12:06pm | Report comment
My concerns if 9 go broke … will any new deal be close , as much or better than the current one…
Whatever the issues RL folk may have with 9 … most other sports would give their left one to be in RL’s place …
September 19th 2012 @ 2:08pm
planko said | September 19th 2012 @ 2:08pm | Report comment
Nine will not go broke they will be sold as a going concern. The current owners have heavy debt loads yes…. FTA television licences are like real estate. Many owners of houses and farms go broke but the farm and the house still exists. A Business that spins off 400 to 600 million a year in positive cash flow will find a new owner ….
September 20th 2012 @ 12:05pm
Horatio said | September 20th 2012 @ 12:05pm | Report comment
True but the new owners (the lenders) will cut the new place to bits and seek renegotiation of the deal. They know that Ten hasnt got any money either and Seven really only wants SOO and maybe Friday night for the money. Remember Nine paid a shedload for the NRL while News paid the bulk of the AFL deal… We will watch with interest (no pun intended). Sport is still expensive after you add in production costs but in a dipsarate comms landscape its the only way to get big audience although split in Aus…
September 26th 2012 @ 8:44am
Redb said | September 26th 2012 @ 8:44am | Report comment
Horatio is spot on.
All deals are frozen in a receivership. Even if the entity/assets are sold 100% intact it would be up to the buyer to determine what they are willing to pay for any rights and the NRL or cricket Australia would be negotiating from scratch.
Could see cricket go to Ch 7 and the NRL stay on Ch 9.
September 21st 2012 @ 9:32am
BigAl said | September 21st 2012 @ 9:32am | Report comment
– just realised I am basically repeating planko’s post . . .
Ch9 is not going broke !, in fact over the last year they have made a quite a bit of a resurgence.
The problem is that the holding Co. that bought it from James Packer is facing debt re-financing problems.
If they can’t arrange re-financing then they will have to sell off some assets (Ch9, and that is an – if ).
This has happened before ( think Packer to Bond and then back to Packer ) and Ch9 during this continued to operate reasonably seamlessly.
If this happened again, new owners would realise that they have a great working business, and one that heavily relies on broadcasting major sport – in short, business as usual.
The only real losers could possibly be the holding Co. which had to conduct a bit of a fire sale
September 26th 2012 @ 8:48am
Redb said | September 26th 2012 @ 8:48am | Report comment
Not 100% right BigAl, $2.2B in reasons why they have an issue. They only way to get rid of the huge debt is to go into receivership, then it can be sold as a going concern to a new buyer free of debt.
September 22nd 2012 @ 4:47pm
Rip Van Winkle said | September 22nd 2012 @ 4:47pm | Report comment
Plenty of sports hoping for a second Super League War. Look at the Swans. A mere 57,000 odd instead of a predicted 75,000+ crowd and their best years were in the aftermath of the first Super League War, such as when they posted their biggest crowd in 2003.
September 26th 2012 @ 8:45am
Redb said | September 26th 2012 @ 8:45am | Report comment
Ticket prices had more impact on the Swans crowd than anything they were double the NRL prelim prices.
September 23rd 2012 @ 7:08pm
chris said | September 23rd 2012 @ 7:08pm | Report comment
Iam still waiting for the Rugby codes to merge back.
September 26th 2012 @ 8:17am
Midfielder said | September 26th 2012 @ 8:17am | Report comment
from the smh today …
http://www.smh.com.au/business/channel-nine-on-brink-as-banks-circle-20120925-26jpx.html
September 26th 2012 @ 8:29am
Boomshanka said | September 26th 2012 @ 8:29am | Report comment
Yep saw that this morning and it’s already made my day.
I hope the receivers inflict a long, protracted and painful death to this company.
First cab of the rank should be to sell the league rights to a better network (actually any network would be better than these muppets).
September 26th 2012 @ 8:51am
Redb said | September 26th 2012 @ 8:51am | Report comment
Boomshanka,
Not sure why your happy about it. Sure Ch 9 may suck as do Ch 7 in their sports coverage but putting a $1B TV deal at risk is not great for any sport despite getting money upfront.
Even if you assume the deal is agreed to by a new buyer there will be months of delays which put plans on hold.
September 26th 2012 @ 9:46am
Boomshanka said | September 26th 2012 @ 9:46am | Report comment
Nine have been propped up by us (taxpayers, residents and citizens) for years through cosy licensing terms and anti siphoning laws which see them play sports broker to the detriment of sports fans across this country.
We in return are subjected to hoarding and chopping of quality programs with local rubbish such as ACA and Big Brother. Each to their own, but these guys operate in a self congratulatory bubble that’s about to burst. Looking forward to programmers, commentators and other leaches on society facing a touch of reality.
I’m sure even you’re looking forward to an ad filled, break ridden AFL grand final coverage after watching every game live, uninterrupted and in HD so far this year.
September 26th 2012 @ 10:01am
Redb said | September 26th 2012 @ 10:01am | Report comment
Fox Footy is a revelation.