I think 7’s AFL got same FTA matches as before and got 7+. This deal by 9 actually lost some FTA (men’s & women’s) compared to the last deal & didn’t add anything new. But they aren’t paying that much extra so it makes sense.
So 9’s NRL deal is pretty good considering they maintained the big exclusives with only a slight increase
In 7’s cricket deal, aren’t they paying less than the first deal in 2018? So I don’t think that’s bad as well. The 2018 was bad
The cricket deal still isnt good for FTA.
The increase for Nine is less than inflation over the last deal and maintains all their benefits. The only risk for Nine is the general declining ad market - how well they can convert FTA coverage into revenue, but sports rights are probably a lower risk than general entertainment for that, as the audiences have been growing and the kind of viewer you get is harder to capture for advertisers at other times.
I think the inevitable increase in Kayo’s cost helps Nine - it’ll be harder and harder to justify the price of the subscription, so more viewers will turn to Nine’s free offering.
Nine’s fortunes year to year probably depend on Origin being competitive, but in general if Nine can’t make this NRL deal work with all going for them, I don’t think Nine can make Nine work.
They won’t though. The same teams don’t play on FTA every week. You don’t have a choice but to subscribe to Kayo to watch your team each week.
Nine will pay about $40 million to air the 2027 and 2031 clashes in the biennial cricket contest, sources said. The rights are likely to remain jointly held by Nine and pay TV company Foxtel.
Nine’s (FTA’s) proportion of the games each week is down because of the extra team and will fall again when the 20th is added. 3 games out of 20 teams makes it very hard to follow a club.
Exactly. It’s unavoidable. You need a Kayo subscription.
If Nine wands more content they could make a “Super Saturday” of Queensland Cup and NSW Cup matches.
All Queensland Cup matches are currently broadcast by QPlus.tv
It wouldn’t cost that much to acquire the rights.
The future of State of Origin and its impact on club football has been a hot topic in rugby league for years now. As part of the new broadcasting agreement, the interstate series will stay on the Nine Network and remain on Wednesday night. That doesn’t necessarily mean stand-alone Origin is dead though. ARL Commission chair Peter V’landys made it clear that discussions need to be held with the broadcasters regarding whether the series would be played over a shortened period and whether club football would run concurrently. Ultimately though, that will be a decision for the NRL given they have taken back control go the draw.
Don’t you mean 3 out of 10 games per regular round?
There are 20 teams, not 40
Especially for the fans of Perth Bears. They will have to either fork out a membership to see matches live at HBF Park, or buy a Kayo subscription.
There were reports through the negotiations of a state govt retirement for Perth Bears matches to be on FTA (assume in WA only) - hopefully info is provided on whether this forms part of the final agreement.
Shame the FTA component has seen a reduction in games. Whilst the initial messaging is no price rises, DAZN will fleece viewers. I would think there will much more calling from studios and minimal presence at the venues with such an increase in costs.
At the start of the new deal, will NRL air on Nine nationwide or is 9Gem still going to be used in AFL states?
But two of those new clubs will be from other countries with their own tv arrangements, so the proportion of Australian club fta games in Australia is only really altered by the addition of Perth.
Depends where you fall between a casual and big fan. If it ends up $50+ a month how many will fall away?
I think a decent amount of people might just watch their team when they can on FTA, and otherwise just occasionally go to a match or a pub, and then just generally see the results without watching the matches themselves.
The risk is they just don’t watch and the NRL declines through being strongly paywalled - but that really won’t be too apparent until they fail a new generation of fans, this will hurt the long term future of the NRL far more than will be apparent in this rights cycle.
I appreciate that it’s a decent amount of money, but you’d also be lucky to go to a single game for $50 these days, and that $50 gives you a lot more than a single game too.
We’ve got to accept a level of paywalling for professional sport now - FTA simply isnt in a position to give the sort of coverage they did in the past.
It’s still astonishing that Nine will be paying less to maintain their NRL rights than Seven is paying each year for their AFL rights package. This is despite Nine getting more exclusive matches than Seven does with the AFL.
It’s one of those deals where all parties have simultaneously won and lost:
Considering they did that last time, it would be extremely foolish of TA not to test the market next time.
According to an interview Sophie Moloney gave to the NZ Herald, the FTA offering on Three will consist of live to delayed^ broadcasts of a weekly NRL game, State of Origin and an unstated number of NRLW games.
^ To jump on my soapbox for a moment, the concept of live to delayed broadcasts (and Sky’s belief it’s the only way sport on FTA should be shown) is absurd. All it does is diminish the viewing experience for the small number of people who tune in.
They can listen to paywalled games on the radio and watch a full replay of the match on YouTube after the round is complete.