After 25 years as the home of televised rugby in Australia, Fox Sports has been beaten to the party by Nine entertainment.
The Nine television network and its streaming platform, Stan, will fill the coffers at Rugby Australia to the tune of $100m over the next three years.
While to some the move may seem strange, on closer inspection it’s a forward thinking move the sport needs. For the casual observer, having rugby union on a free-to-air network will be the opportunity they will have to look at something other than sporadic Wallaby Tests.
Stan has positioned itself nicely behind Netflix as Australia’s paid streaming service of choice. In the UK Amazon has used its Prime Video service to show a handful of Premier League games while Facebook has done the same in the US with the NFL.
No doubt these are plays to see the attraction of internet delivered sporting content in large markets where the price for rights goes up ever cycle. The tech giants have the reach as well as the deep pockets to outbid any terrestrial and pay operation to maintain their market dominance.
This in turn leads to a larger ad revenue base. This move by Nine and Stan is an ideal play at a time when the Premier League is at home on the Optus Sports platform.
With 825,000 active subscribers enjoying their sport of choice, the payoff for another steaming network to enter the field was an attractive alternative to Foxtel while dedicating its resources on one niche sport.
In an environment where Foxtel is bleeding customers and the subscriber base is agitated at the decreasing value for money offering, rugby has turned its back on its broadcast partner of a quarter of a century to try and establish a new way of content delivery.
Now, rusted-on supporters and the casual observers will tune in on Nine.
The home of NRL on free-to-air will show one live Super Rugby game on a Saturday night. The rest will be behind the paywall on Stan.
Is this as bad as it sounds and will you need to sign up to Stan to watch Australia’s finest go round?
We have four Super Rugby teams. Five if the resurrected Western Force are included. If they are, then one team gets a bye and there are two games to watch.
One of those will be free to watch. Test matches and Super Rugby finals will be live on Nine. For most, that is enough and their hard earned can stay squirrelled away.
A new platform called Stan Sport will be an add on and you know what comes next. To recoup the $30m they will stump up each year will have to be recouped through increased subscribers and those who will pay for what they had now with a sport offering. Nine promises more sport on Stan. At first look, an NRL archive seems an obvious play.
One could be forgiven for being a little sceptical as to the motives behind Nine looking to the NRL for a Covid-related price reduction this season. The ratings have been a boon for both Nine and Foxtel in a season where we were starving for the in-person experience and TV was the fallback for most who could not or would not attend.
It freed up a nice wad of cash that has now been delivered to the leather patch brigade.
The next three years will be worth following off the field as well as on to see where this leads. Optus Sport now own soccer and the chances of that returning to Fox are slim.
The larger sports will watch with interest to see where the orange can be squeezed even more.
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Roar Guru
Bray is so old that he was calling it when I was playing. Still I like his commentary.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
I love starting watching the game a little late and fast forwarding through the stoppages. Except hard to text mates about the game when we are all at a different point
elvis
Roar Rookie
I hope emply is some kind of synonym for not hire.
elvis
Roar Rookie
Ahh the old billboard on the Albion onramp to the ICB marketing blitz. The only way I know the Reds are back each year.
elvis
Roar Rookie
You know Rick Stein isn't live don't you?
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
That is my understanding. I believe anything included on Fox as part of the sanzaar deal will be (so not 6 nations, Prem, etc - just Aus, SA and NZ content)
Malotru
Roar Rookie
Presumably including Mitre 10 Cup TWAS?
In brief
Guest
The diaries of Erin Molan - sounds like a pre teen series..
In brief
Guest
Lovely guy and lots of nostalgia for long time rugby followers, but I don’t think he’s the right man, unfortunately.
Bourkos
Roar Rookie
This is one of the greatest assets to this deal. Media coverage. There was minimal under Rupert Murdoch. Now we will start to see more rugby on the back page
Bourkos
Roar Rookie
Lame
Bourkos
Roar Rookie
The best way to test my theory is to listen to the fox rugby podcast VS the Aussie rugby show. The former is a monotonous predictable and average show whenever swain has anything to do with it. The latter is a laugh and the team is honestly a very entertaining bunch
Bourkos
Roar Rookie
Swain are you serious? Of all people he would be the worst. His questions revolve around receiving the most most basic of replies and lack any pre though what so ever. "Did you work hard this week on building intensity?" "Was there much talk around being stronger in defence? " These questions are so poor that you can't blame the player for giving a wish wash reply because he's set them up for failure. I want to hear questions that actually challenge the tactics of the team and or at least bring out some entertainment factor. Mcardle does his homework, Clarke too. Drew Mitchell is at least funny and bring some analysis. Kafer would have to be in the picture too. The rest of them need to go..
Mark Scarfe
Roar Guru
No one knows yet.
The real SC
Roar Rookie
WIth the new broadcasting rights deal, I think this will provide some exposure to the sporting code. With Fox Sports leaving Rugby at the end of 2020, this will have a big shakeup with the new rights. Channel Nine will need to search for new hosts and new commentators to call the Trans Tasman Super Rugby series. Unfortunately James Bracey may not host the Rugby Union series as he would rather focus on the NRL. Maybe Erin Molan might be lured to Nine's Super Rugby coverage?
Bobby
Roar Rookie
In NZ, DA :)
GoldenEye
Roar Rookie
With the changes in broadcast rights I've been waiting to see how the respective newspaper arms would respond. As expected the Daily Telegraph has resumed their disparaging coverage of the code, nothing new here. Where I was more curious with Nine owning SMH, was how Malcolm Knox and Roy Masters would react. Both have written a plethora of negative articles disparaging Rugby. Masters I can understand his petty vested interest views. Knox, I'm unsure why, maybe like a jilted lover spurned his bitterness runs too deep. Previously I had decided to avoid his articles due to their inherent negativity towards, well everything. This evening he posted one and curiosity got the better of me. As expected nothing has changed, he obviously has no understanding of Rugby, but continually writes about it. Why? Is it some sort of self-loathing fetish? The point of this long-winded comment is, whilst it is a new era and mostly Nine media has been refreshingly positive, there'll always be the detractors with their petty mind-sets trying to influence the mindless masses towards their cause of the day. Unfortunately in modern society reporters are no longer, they are but mere influencers pushing an agenda.
fiwiboy7042
Roar Rookie
Stan
Utah
Guest
PeterK I believe they said the first round on the Friday will be on FTA, then revert to Saturdays after that. No league then, so not an issue for them.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Triple M is owned by Southern Cross Austereo so an increase in rugby news, while great to hear, is not related to the deal, which makes the increase even better if it is done on their own accord.