The truth about the NRL TV deal announcement

i live in nsw i agree the nrl is very poor on their choices one live match big deal i have fox sports i can watch all games live so i rather channel 10 to of got it we needed a change nine is like an old dog you cant teach an old dog new tricks hopefuly the next tv deal some young guys do a better deal cheers

don't know about the others but NZ can go back to the ITM Cup. Since that competition operates on next to nothing in terms of TV money, Foxtel/Sky going broke will hurt them very little (although there may still be a little pain!). I haven't watched the Tasman-Canterbury ITM game yet tonite (working on it) but I know it was an effing classic. All the aussies will go WTF? I tell the kiwis -- effing hell, much closer than the bunnies-broncos game!

GoGWS, you forget media rights haven't been factored in.The cash component for the AFL TV part of the deal by my reckoning is $965 million, the NRL is $925 million by the way. So given the NRL has 2 less clubs, half the running cost, player payments of the AFL it looks great for the NRL. I watched Manly v Broncos tonight and in the 1st half their was by my remembering, 1 ad (Coles), yes 1 ad. So looking at this, the NRL deal is a miracle and one can understand why Nine can only deal with 1 live game. Give them a break.

Roy's latest campaign is to convince people $1.025bn is somehow greater than $1.253bn

“if Coles pay their managers and staff double,and their price of lamb and beef drops at the same time,and the shareholders continue to receive their growing franked dividends(thanks Wesfarmers),then everyone from staff,to consumer benefits.)Except perhaps the poor old cocky. Shareholders complain if the dividend is not increased.If it is,they have no objection as to staff and exec salaries increasing provided not going overboard.It means the company profits continue to grow.” I’m glad you completely missed the point of my analogy because you’ve actually just argued my point. What actually happened at Wesfarmers was that execs got rewarded, shareholders got rewarded and money was put back into the business to ensure long term viability. That is exactly what I’m saying I want to see happen - a balanced return to stakeholders. Woohoo you admit that is how it is supposed to happen. Thank you for inadvertently getting the point. As for your shareholders tolerance of salaries: “I do not see or hear shareholders in CBA whinge when the CEO gets a huge salary.Their dividends maintain growth. The customers yes..” Last AGM was November last year where north of 400m worth of stock voted against the remuneration package. Sure it isn’t enough for a strike but with high retail shareholder bases, which is far less likely to be active voters as most things get filed in round filing cabinet in the kitchen, you’re always pretty safe (hence they rejected shareholder proposed salary structures). I’m sorry if coverage in every major paper with a financial section and on most financial news channels didn’t allow you to “see or hear” about any shareholders objecting. “ I quote Grant”the cash that comes from the agreement ,used wisley,will provide a funding base to sustainably grow our game from its GRASSROOTS to the ELITE level.”. You also gave me a spiel from another source once before to the effect that the centre fo excellence debts couldn’t affect the football club. Despite you know, anyone with 30 minutes experience being able to call BS on that. This quote is little more than rhetoric. It could be summaries as this is a pancea for everything. Beauty queen hopefuls have delivered more detailed plans for world peace than this. As I said – if the numbers that have been quoted are wrong then my opinion regarding the deal changes. There are no numbers here and no actual commitments. I apologise if my read of the figures are wrong, this is based entirely on those reported here on the roar by the “experts” if they have lied or mislead me then yes, as I said my opinion changes. I apologise that my comments read as criticising what the players receive rather than more a criticism of what was reported that the grass roots receive. I really don’t care what the players receive in an absolute sense but hope that the future of the game, in a relative sense, receives a material benefit.

karlos, thats right, some just never get happy. They live in a continual state of discontentment. They are probably not entirely in tune with their own feelings or direction. We have the money, its what the game needs now. The clubs can use some of this extra money to make game days better, memberships better, tickets better, initiatives better at the club and in the community. And its not just that - BUT EVERYONE TIED TO RUGBY LEAGUE, be it at a function or some other event, will notice the new influx of money. The refs will notice it, ANYONE will notice and feel its beneficial effects. This deal will give the clubs the ability to offer value, not just to players and fans, but EVERYONE associated in any way to the game. Crying about FTA coverage is truly a cop out. A complete self entitled and selfish cop-out, that serves the game nothing. Its not like you can't watch it on FTA. It would be a different story then, but wake up people. And if people think the commission can't handle their money, they'd be wrong.

Jesus. Some people are never happy. For years we have been wanting a big increase in the $ available to the game. We have it. Shut tf up.

The second 7:30 Saturday game has been live on Speed HD for at least the last month or two.

lol Hey thanks. And I must confide, I often wonder that too. Back when I worked it all out, I had no idea about the 2027 F & L rights, and ch9 F & L Rights....OR about those very ones being removed. Or about the new AFL deal, or IPTV (though it was around, not its significance), or the NBN All I had to go by was the games core elements.....but I put it to you, no matter what occurs between now and the future, the games core needs to be addressed. And its not that we didn't have some of those core elements, or even some of them working enough for us.....its that they were not being maximised very well.... and with all that, I thought the fan was suffering as a result. He could not get into a decent stadium, he could not get cheap tickets, he could not be sure his club would be around. Also, do not forget back in 2004/5 when i merely suggested we should get better stadia, people jumped down my throat in defence of suburban grounds. Now the tide has turned, people realize we can still play at them, but we must move to bigger and better stadia at some point soon, if not for the size, for the facilities. I guess things change but the core game does not. I personally worry about rules. I want it to be like soccer - they basically never change. The game is good enough like it is. Why do we mess with it so much. This is why I like the TV deal so much. It can bring about that change. Which = fans win. I never new that a TV windfall could bring it about....I truly believed we would have to chip away at it and get it bit by bit. We may still need to, but it can come a whole lot faster and easier.

I like your perspective Von neumann. Your like that guy in the Matrix that knows the big picture whilst I am just Keanu Reeves walking around trying to make sense of it all. Well I am glad we are only in the second dimension. I hope we reach Rugby League Nirvana by attaining level 7. However I am frightened like poor little Keaunu wandering the matrix that things are not as they seem. I am frightened that I will reach Level 7 and in a big Hollywood twist I am no longer watching League. I am watching Grid-Iron.

81paling, apparently it was 500 million. I remember reading somewhere its 90 a year with 10m contra. ch9 must have paid 400 odd million It is odd though, and probably deliberate, that from all the news sources, many of them have reported different figures. I fail to see how they can mess it up, the have notes on the press conference. So I can only be 99% sure; I was also told that foxtel chipped in more than ch9 by one article. ___ The breakdown makes sense to me. ch9 only had 400 million odd max. ch10 had 800 million odd. wow, they really cleared the decks. The deal ultimately hinged on foxtel, who wanted to go with 9, and no doubt kim williams/delaney would have 'failed' to do proper business with ch10 by telling them he could not offer more for the on-selling of games, ect. Its my understanding that no good agreement was reached between them. If only ch7 and 10 got together. See, I personally think foxtel could have gone even higher. But they had the cards to play, first/last rights, positioning.

I am struggling to get facts on this hole deal, could anyone please let me know how much Fox sports paid in cash of the $1bn deal?

"all I was trying to say is that the other 75% of people who don’t have fox can only watch one game a week live" Or they could go to the games... Season tickets for the Broncos start at $255 for adults. I'm sure your mates could aford that.

Obviously very few of you are pathetic. You're probably upstanding citizens. Not that I could tell. Its an emotional issue. Personally my bottom line was at least a saturday night FTA....not for me, I won't watch on saturdays, but I got the message what many people would like an extra game. So that previous post needed to be said first up. I too, want to add my truth to the article, which I quite enjoyed reading. I take in ALL views, but I see when things drop below a certain line in my mind, then I won't take it. See, I too was in this position you guys find yourselves in (maybe we all were) back in 2004/5. Then, things became apparent we were being let down. There was much flak on a certain forum back then and I was in amongst it. One day, I got a message from someone who will remain nameless asking me "Ok, big shot, what would you do?" [to fix the game] "You talk a bit of sense, lets see what you would do." I told him directly, and here you will see why you should PACE yourselves with this deal, and "do the time" so to speak. I said to him, the following needs to happen, and I will include comments in brackets. 1. Independent Commission. (we did that. Until I brought it up on the forum, and I used to be a data-miner when it came to the game so I knew I had never seen it before, NO ONE had ever mentioned it to me. I pointed to the NFL and AFL. Get a commission, this thing does not work, the balance of power is all wrong, and frankly there is no power to distribute properly) (well, we got our commission, did we not? and they seem to be doing a good job of redistributing power. I put it forth that no club-centric power base could effectively rule. I used analogies such as roman republics and roman empire, how after a certain point of growth, the system that worked previous - IF held in place - will come to compromise progress. The method of governance I deemed fit - not because of AFL - was a council, or commission, who were given a charter and mandate to rule by the clubs themselves. Everyone moves in the one direction.) 2. Sort out club finances (this is where we are now. Back then, everyone was going broke. But I knew we could not sort out finances before we sorted out our leadership. You cannot run a game where the clubs throw away money after debt and leak money. This is where we are NOW remember, but such a point moulds into the next point. We had a system whereby we virtually had no business of football where fan business of membership, season tickets, gate, corportates, fuels club financial success **DID NOT EXIST***......THE BRONCOS made more money in one game than a sydney club does all year...its still the case.. All we had was a system whereby the clubs ran at a loss, had virtually no active fans - fans who attend - and to balance that we had leagues clubs - entirely NOT assosiated with getting fans to games to fuel the business of football - tipping in money to keep the very poor system running. OR IN SHORT terms: the game was not sustaining itself....compounded by the fact that the game was not really running itself, or paying for itself very much.....the game was virtually a leach. It had been beaten into submission by other powers that new what they wanted, where they were going, and what they were doing.) (of course whats possible for this is to keep players in the game, and have larger and more effective operations surrounding the game 3. Make a better game day experience. (This is where we will goto next...and this includes ticketing, memberships and season tickets, value, extra passion, better facilities....which will all equal a better return for everyone. I included things like clubs working together and initiatives such as children getting in for dirt cheap). (You will note that I have not touched on "better coverage for all". Because it does not matter, especially when you consider the tender-hooks position we have come from. FTA coverage does not equal fans. ONLY FTA **Presence** equals fans. I.e Its enough to be on FTA more than once....yes.....even in 2012 - considering where we come from and what needs addressing) 3a. make stadia better. simple point is the broncos setup. Also, look at arsenal when moving to a new stadium....look at this potential....they made MORE money from their corporates in the new stadium each game, alone, than they did in the ENTIRE sellout of their old stadium....new facilities. But you cant "suck up" that extra room, unless you have a demand to fill it. 3b. Sort out transport to stadia in sydney. (a bit out of our hands, but who knows whats possible now we can lobby and we have money) 4. Assist Junior football. (after 3 but probably be done at same time, because you need money flowing in, and besides lots of kids play the game already. The biggest impact growth that will help fuel the other points after, is finances and getting people into attending and supporting teams directly more. ) 5. Reinstatement of international football as the pinnacle of our game. 6. When we have all that, take it to the rest of the country. I say to Perth, don't worry, we're getting everything ready for you. I DO NOT say "damn, no perth, time to cry." You guys are on a great thing....and remember if my humble self could tell that, to that man, whoever he was, back in 2004, imagine what people like Grant, the commission, ect and other people within the game could tell you. We are on (by my reckoning) step 2. Some things are more important than tv coverage. Notice I did *not* include tv coverage in my points. My points are sources of greatness. TV coverage (perhaps not directly) is a derivative. In other words, there are things that matter, and things that don't really matter, because you will get them anyway. Remember, we are only on step 2, and the TV deal really helps with that. Don't build houses on sand - doesn't work. and step 7. At the end, because it may surprise you. I think we could use our own stadium. If only because we have 160 games? and we could make money directly. If we saved 10M per year, and got biz to chip in 90, and the govts state and federal to come up with 100, then we could have a beauty....they can all own it and we get ownership after 15-20 years. That would be my icing on the cake. Not FTA on the couch.

You are negative about people being negative. Hardly positive. But then again, I am being negative about someone being negative about people being negative. I am so much worse... (Okay, I will be positive now.) On the plus side. Big bucks are awesome. NRL is awesome. I Love watching angry jocks smack into each other.( I really do, I am not being sarcastic.) They deserve their handsome pay cheques to pay for their orthapaedic surgeon's BMW. So now having balanced negative and positive its time for random... I shall end by quoting the great Swedish prophets, (ABBA) Money, Money, Money.... In the rich man's world.

Save your breath, cross coder. the cross section we have here is poor people, uni students, young kids, people with no life, and people who believe the world owes them everything. So who the hell am I? Well, someone who knows enough to not put down a deal of this magnitude. It could have been better, yeah, but its not, but neither is it worthy of the discontent and disrespect to those who put in the hard yards to do it. You people don't quite understand what the money will do yet - but you will. Its hard to appreciate money, right....when you don't got none. People think its meant to be the other way round....its not. You all want your gratification without it being justified. A couple of my comments were moderated, and they said it worse than this. But frankly I will be guzumped if this gets moderated, and question the moderator and his sense, because I am speaking true. Not only that, but it serves a wonderful purpose. These people have no perspective on the matter - all they have is an opinion, and are criticizing people who have achieved and done more in life than they ever will, while not asking WHY. Its pretty simple. People like Pemberton, sutcliffe, grant, ect, well you can put it this way. They are not fools. And they have the best interest of the entire game at heart. Simply, 1b > 800m. And for the core game components of salary, club grants, match day experience, memberships, club finance......there is simply no comparison between the two deals. I mean, you all go to watch your teams, don't you? Like as much as possible. Its only 12 outtings a year. Why? Because they realized the game needed the money more than it needed a few hangers-on who attribute nothing. This game is NOT just about the fans. Its also about the players, the clubs, the future, the operations and they way they are done. People need to pull their heads out of their proverbial and get enlightened. That is: you need to match it with the big boys if you are going to play with the big boys. Also, nothing makes people like these guys here happy. They are in an eternal (step behind) spiral down. They probably dont know how to sort out finances, how to pitch in....I'd hazard a guess to say they have had their heads stuck in the sand all this time. The ONE thing they can take out of this - as far as the fans are concerned - and I am talking specifically of the fans (ohhhh never mind the game itself which they want to pick the eyes out of)....is that in the next deal, given that another major benefit of this deal is that it frees the game of all nooses, the game will take things to the next step and deliver more accessible content to fans, that even the poorest and most decrepit will be able to afford. But you've got to be kidding me if you dont think accessing the game 1 At the ground 2. On FTA 3. 2 hours each night on extra 4. On foxtel 5 Via mobile media/IPTV (most likely) via fox, smart tv, t-box, x-box, phone... Well you would have to be kidding me if that was not enough for you, to get your fix.......ABOVE and beyond the game that you attend each week.....because god knows, from all the whinging here, right.....you guys must go a lot.....really pitching in there. Here's the thing: you hate the networks and the content they deliver and how they deliver it? Well buy a membership and goto your clubs games, see it with your eyes...and instead of helping the networks, you'll be helping your clubs directly. But go on, mod this, mods. If they do, I'll take it that they too are leaches and grumblers and are just another blight on the game. You people need to see how pathetic you really are. When you're done venting here, send off an email to the NRL. And say sorry at the end.

"and as nice as it is to have it all on Foxtel – promotion & growth depends on FTA. One live game a week is a pittance!" Every night there is going to two hours of rugby league coverage on Extra (ch94). Rugby league will be the only sport on FTA that is televised 7 days a week.

So do you think the TV broadcasters will allow unhindered access via 'live' streaming or would they expect that the product they have purchased is solely theirs & only to be broadcast via their own means ? You know what I mean, I have no Austar/Foxtel tv subscription, in fact I don't even have HD Tv but i do have internet capability, so how do I watch NRL ? Who gets the rights ? who gives me 'live' coverage ? It seems to have either been forgotten about altogether or I have just missed it altogether, what makes me wonder is that it wasn't made obvious what the deal was in the manner that AFL did when it trumpeted it's own new deal. Not comparing NRL to AFL in a bad light, it's just what I have noticed thus far.

I'm pretty sure that's not the old TC...is it?

Oikee, Forget this international stuff. Australian football doesn't need any international exposure as long as their domestic product holds up. And it seems to, year-in, year-out. AFL matches are for 100 minutes, with many opportunities for brief ads inserts. NRL fans might have to be worried either more games will take longer to play out due to ads inserts, or have a portion of the match, perhaps 10-15 mins cut out from 80 mins, due ads inserts. It will be interesting to see channel 9 handles this.