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Huge changes at the top of two of Australia’s free-to-air commercial television networks could be an unexpected boon for rugby league.
The Seven Network’s sales boss James Warburton, long seen as one of the most talented executives in the Australian media industry, has jumped ship and been named as the new CEO of Network Ten.
Warburton was the head of sales at Seven, online partner Yahoo!7 and Pacific Magazines.
Replacing him in the top sales job at Seven director of sales Kurt Burnette.
Not many people may know, but Burnette is a rugby league man through and through. He played colts with the Brisbane Broncos, played league in England for a year before coming home and joining Manly.
He was a winger at the Sea Eagles before joining Seven and opting for a career in TV. Burnette’s spent 20 years at Seven, and has been a vital cog in the network’s rise to be number one in Australia.
So with him now in charge of sales at Seven, will we see the network make a play for the league broadcasting rights, held by Nine for many years?
Seven flirted with league last year with the poorly performing Matty Johns show, which is now on hiatus. But could a big play for the free-to-air league rights be on the cards?
If Seven is interested, this could drive up the price of league’s TV deal.
Warburton’s defection to Ten could also throw a spanner in the works of the AFL’s new TV deal. Ten and Seven share the free-to-air AFL rights, but this switch could end up in real bad blood between the two and end any future partnership.
Warburton’s hiring could also send the end of One HD. The sport-focused digital channel appears to be struggling to gain either viewers or advertisers, and Warburton will surely be out to fix any ailing parts of the Ten machine.
So these management switches could have huge repercussions for some of Australia’s top sports…
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