Possibly - and there’s no endless pit of money for anything - but when your FTA network and subscription model is based on sports, then it becomes vital to buy and retain a mix of rights.
They barely fund drama as a FTA network anymore, their cost base and income is different so a market correction may happen but you also can’t judge it versus the old FTA model and how it was built on the anchor tenants of primetime 20-25 years ago.
With all due respect to Netball, I wouldn’t call it a ‘decent’ backup to no NRL.
By all reports, the current Foxtel deal was valued somewhere between $60-80 million over 5 years. I wouldn’t imagine that value has grown by a whole lot, given the state of the game in recent years. While that isn’t an insignificant amount of money, it isn’t exactly going to break the bank for them, especially once you factor in increases revenues from new Stan Sport subscriptions.
Of course but being able to fully do that requires Nine’s pay service in Stan to have exclusive matches/content. In which case, this deal would be no different to the Supercars rights structure that people railed against not just a few posts above but on this forum.
While one network/company having all the rights works for sports like netball and rugby union, ‘Tier A’ sports like AFL and NRL need multiple partners in order to fully maximise how much they can sell their rights for (among other considerations).
Absolutely and Nine have done well over the last few years to not only grow their sports rights folio but become a one stop destination for sports such as rugby union, tennis and now netball.
Having said that, having a subscription platform doesn’t (as DAZN have found out not just with Foxtel but globally) give the owner of said platform unlimited scope to spend on acquiring/maintaining rights and merely believing/hoping that they’ll be able to recoup costs through increasing subscribers and subscription fees.
Of course the netball rights won’t single-handedly break the bank for Nine. However, it further increases the already significant amount they’re spending on sports rights.
Considering quite a number of their rights are currently (or over the next few years, will be) up for renewal and maintaining (let alone improving or enhancing) what they currently have will require them to spend quite a lot more, they’re likely going to end up being forced into a corner that will result them in needing to make some tough decisions about what rights they really want to maintain.
Although in DAZN’s case, I’d argue there’s also a significant degree of unwillingness to actually commit to not just the initial contracts, but the terms of those contracts once they’ve signed on — something that should unsettle sporting bodies. Just look at Main Street Sports and the mess that the closure of FanDuel Sports has created, all off the back of a failed acquisition play (or should that be ploy) by DAZN itself.
SSN wil probably replace the Saturday Night Super Rugby game on Nine but the main difference is all Finals will be on broadcast TV which is a step in the right direction. Netball Australia went with Fox/Kayo putting everything behind a paywall last TV deal which expires at the end of this year
You can say a lot about DAZN but kicking the tyres on the striped out, burnt out lemon that was the Fox Sports Net-Sinclair-Diamond Sports-Bally Sports-Main Street Sports-Fanduel Sports clusterfuck didn’t cause it to collapse.
I didn’t actually say nor imply that DAZN caused the collapse; I was simply suggesting that the company cannot make firm commitments of any kind to anything or anyone without bailing or attempting to alter their agreements to suit their financial situation at any given moment.
Everything wasn’t (and isn’t) behind a paywall though. Two SSN games a round as well as all SSN finals and Diamonds games can be viewed on Kayo without a subscription.
Has that been properly advertised/promoted? No.
Is that deliberate? Of course it is.
However, that doesn’t change the fact that a substantial amount of netball can currenly be freely and easily accessed. As such, suggesting netball is currently completely behind a paywall is as big of a myth as the notion sprouted a few posts above that Supercars is a pay TV only sport.
No one knows or cares about that. It’s not free to air with a network cross promoting. DAZN are a disaster and need to be destroyed and shut down in this country. We don’t need them.
Even taking out the anti-Fox/DAZN nature of some of the posts here, free streaming (especially on a paid streamer) is not remotely the same exposure as free to air.
The deal with Fox-Kayo was a disaster. At least Nine/Stan can promote the sport on its Wide World of Sports show and during November’s Melbourne Cup Carnival and next summer’s Australian Open. Also more eyeballs with the Finals and Final plus the Diamonds back on FTA TV
I didn’t equate or said it was. My point is the claim that netball has been completely behind a paywall during the current deal is incorrect and no amount of caveats and/or position shifting that some want to attach to it changes that fact.
It’s also streamed online as a standalone entity earlier than most sports. That doesn’t give it the critical audience mass but their loyal fans are quite nimble technologically already.
There was an OTT app called “Netball Live” in the first Nine deal
Yes, there was. Give credit to their fans for being forced to move with the times a little earlier.
How netball defied flat media landscape to win a landmark media free to air rights deal
Perseverance, patience and a dogged belief in the product they were selling, were the keys to Netball Australia securing a rights deal that can cement its place as one of the genuine power players in Australian sport.
But NA chair Liz Ellis has warned that can only happen if the five-year broadcast agreement with the Nine Network, announced on Thursday, is seen as a building block for future growth.
Super Netball sealed its place as one of the most valuable women’s professional leagues in the world by defying a flat landscape to seal a five-year-deal that includes a rights fee on top of production costs, handing the sport its biggest ever footprint on free to air television.
While the cash component of the new deal is understood to be less than Foxtel’s $35 million over five years, it’s understood it’s not far off, while the contra portion will provide significant advertising.
Foxtel has held the rights for Super Netball for the past five years and was among several entities to express interest again for the new cycle starting from next year.
But Fox Sports’ sale to international streaming giant DAZN and the absence of the previous government funding that was provided specifically for broadcasting women’s and under-represented sport were factors in the final outcome.
A minimum of two matches per week will be shown on free-to-air television across the course of the deal.
In the first season, all four games will also be streamed on 9Now, meaning netball in Australia will be completely free of any paywall for 2027.
But from 2028, Nine has the option to take the remaining two matches to Stan exclusively.
All four games will be available to stream on Stan for the entire five-year period.
I’m told that Netball is losing most if not all of its government funding from the end of this season (excl. the likes of Visit Victoria deal or Comm Games funding etc.).
NBL (FTA component) moving to Nine. Announcement imminent .