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The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that Channel 10 tendered an offer to the ARLC of $800m for four live games a week. At first glance, it’s easy to think that’s $200M short of the Channel 9 deal, until you consider that Channel 10 offered $800m just for the free-to-air portion of the rights.
Does that strike anyone else as being absolutely insane? The Fox Sports portion of the “billion dollar” deal is $500M for five games a week.
The Channel 9 portion is $425m, and both parties have thrown in $50m worth of advertising.
There is clearly something happening here that is beyond my comprehension. By all reports, Channel 10 have nearly doubled the offering from Channel 9 at the cost of a single extra game.
That obviously reduces the value of the pay TV portion, but I can’t help but think that $225M+ would be an absolute steal for Foxtel to keep a handhold on the sport that keeps their subscriptions afloat.
And let’s think big here for a second – is there any reason why a deal couldn’t be struck to sell the rights to four games to Channel 10, and let Foxtel have the remaining four with a commitment to giving them a fifth game as of 2014?
You’d have to think that’s a deal worth upwards of $1.2 billion – at least a $200m gain on the accepted deal.
Surely a $200m war chest would go a long way toward establishing two new teams and ensuring that they’re able to recruit enough genuine talent from outside the game to ensure the standard of play remains just as high.
So what am I missing? Doesn’t that sound like it’s too good be true? Four games on free-to-air, a desperate pay TV provider that needs to pay the asking price or risk losing a significant portion of its subscription base?
Obviously we don’t know the finer details, but on the surface it seems like the ARLC have gone completely stark raving mad.
Is this just another example of rugby league and Channel Nine staying in bed together?
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