ARL Commission chair Peter V’landys has allayed concerns about the Nine Network walking away from the game in the near future, saying the broadcaster has a contract to fulfil.
V’landys’ response comes after Nine chief executive Hugh Marks on Tuesday claimed it wasn’t a “given” the NRL was a part of the network’s future.
Marks promised to continue to be “hard” in delicate talks with the league over how much it will pay to broadcast this year’s re-jigged season.
He said the NRL re-starting this season would prove to be a net negative, but V’landys insisted he wasn’t concerned by the comments.
“Hugh’s been totally transparent but I’m still very confident that we will come to an arrangement with Channel Nine,” V’landys told AAP.
“Hugh’s a very good negotiator and uses strategy exceptionally well.
“But I’m not concerned about it.”
What might cause apprehension for the league was Marks’ thoughts on the free-to-air broadcaster’s long-term partnership with the game.
Marks said the network was less reliant on the NRL as a revenue source and the coronavirus had prompted a re-think of sports rights.
“If we don’t take that change now like we are in all other aspects of our business and we wait until the contract expires in two years, everyone’s in for a rude shock,” Marks said at a Macquarie Conference call on Tuesday.
“Now’s the time when we need to make the changes necessary to make these sports rights more sustainable.”
V’landys shrugged off any suggestion that Nine would walk away from the game before its current broadcast deal expires at the end of the 2022 season.
Nine is understood to be tipping in about $120 million into the NRL a year, but that number could reduce if a renegotiated deal is extended.
“There’s a contract in place, a legally binding contract. And even Hugh himself would understand that,” V’landys said.
“So basically, he would have to get out of the contract. There’s a long way to play yet. He’s playing a strategic game and it’s working well for him.
“So I’m not going to criticise it. We’ll keep moving forward with them. I’m still confident we’ll come to a resolution.
“But never-the-less, as a good partner, we’re looking to assist them in these harsh economic times. We don’t want our partner to suffer significant losses.
“Naturally, we’re at the table talking about it.”
Placepunter
Roar Rookie
Peter........are you there.......did you mean May 2021.......trying hard to believe you but finding it hard........what's the draw......how much money are we getting........who's actually in charge.....oh dear oh dear oh dear.
ScottWoodward.me
Roar Guru
I just wanna say we kick off in 3 weeks and still do not have a draw. HULLO!.......anyone home?
Placepunter
Roar Rookie
Subscribers outside of Australia................100 Subscribers in W.A, S.A, TAS, N.T..............500 Subscribers in Vic.......................................1500 Subscribers in NSW, QLD...........................35000 Somewhat short of 1M I may be wrong and probably are but there's 6 zero's in 1M and i wouldn't expect that the NRL could possibly get a 100k subscribers.
ppa19696837
Roar Rookie
OK...so some really high level figures to massage and get an idea of what it might be worth if the NRL were in a position to directly stream it to an app etc. witht here own production house and hire of broadcasters like NEP or Gearhouse etc. Subscribers - 1 mil x $25 a month for say 9 months (footy season) = $225 mil a year Add in advertising revenues and sponsors etc and this could hit $300 a year. Give the clubs $160 mil of that. (covers the cap?) Production and streaming fess... $20 mil (this would easily cover 8 games a week for 24 rounds at $50K per game and semis/rep games and other production costs..... $50K is a high estimate from a mate who works in sports broadcast) Administration of game fees..$20 mil Marketing...$10 mil Travel...$10 mil (have no idea) Grass roots....$ Comes out of profit.. Other expenses.... $15 mil (have no idea ) What do others think of these figures??? Some I have no idea about.... Is 1 million a reasonable number for subscribers?? Would people pay $25 a month..how many pay for foxtel already? You could sell Origin and Finals to networks and etc for a premium above your general subscribers... I guess the deal they have now mirrors this and takes the risk away from the NRL in terms of subscribers/advertising/production costs etc...
clipper
Roar Rookie
How do you work that out? Most people don't really care and if you go to a non biased site like TV tonight, you'd see it was 50/50. Both sides are out to maximise the money they make, which is what business is all about.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Hahahaha. Sorry to so quickly snatch another commercial network away from your eyeballs, but I meant 7.
Nick
Roar Guru
3. Refs should only penalise when an infraction has occurred. Refs shouldn't penalise when an infraction has occurred.
matth
Roar Guru
Nine sort of doesn't want the NRL to restart this season so they can avoid their annual payment. With the economy in a COVID induced coma, I'd imagine their advertising revenue from NRL timeslots will take a massive hit even if they are back up and running. so it might be that 9 minimises it's losses this year by just not having the footy at all and showing re-runs and reality shows.
matth
Roar Guru
Yep because owning rugby has been a bonanza for Fox so far.
matth
Roar Guru
There's an 8?? Fantastic, what's on it?
matth
Roar Guru
Gus actually wrote the contract between nine and the nrl. this is why things are a bit vague between the parties right now because the contract only has two sentences. 1. Five year plan 2. Made for Origin Neither party have a clue what that means.
matth
Roar Guru
No that just means it's an asset of lower value, it is not a liability until it's value drops below borrowing secured by it.
Nick
Roar Guru
It's a liability if the owner can't sell it for market value, or can't extract any money from it. The stadium sits in neither of those categories.
Walter Black
Guest
Moose, it may be a bit of semantics here that is the problem. My point was that Marvel stadium (any stadium) is right now sitting idle doing nothing and earning nothing but it will be costing something - deprecation, wear and tear whatever. Consequently my white elephant remark (which I accept was a bit flippant) was making the point that right now at this minute that stadium is a liability and not an asset.
Cadfael
Roar Guru
Quite right, there is a contract in place and under the contract Nine is to televise the game. Unfortunately, there is no game to televise so a bit hard to blame Nine for not showing games on tv.
1.5 metres please
Guest
Does anyone really think another station wouldn’t run cross promotions during a prime time telecast ? Does anyone really think another station would air games out of prime time ? Does anyone really think another station would’ negotiate in its own best interests? And to all the Gould , Warren , Lockyer, Slater etc haaters on here , Does anyone really think they won’t just find someone else on the new station to haaate ? Whinging for the sake of whinging.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Yes. Government decisions should be made to suit you only.
1.5 metres please
Guest
Suits me , put the money into something worth while . I’m sure someone would pick up Qard Quiz and Bluey , the rest is garbage.
Jaeger
Roar Rookie
Read a post that said a combined sporting body would bring in $1B. Where there is money, there is a way. You are right though, pretty messy. Though where there is crisis, there is opportunity.
Nat
Roar Guru
Waterhouse with his 'the favourite is ... but I like the roughy ...' All the mug punters jump on the roughy and Tom's giggling all the way to the bank. Like taking a tip from the devil about the way to heaven.