Fitzpatrick calls for creative broadcasting deal

[Total Rugby League]

Rugby League would be naive not to explore the possibility of streaming games on services like Amazon Prime in the future, according to one of...

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[Wolford6]

Channel 4 would be better. It's moving a large section of the organisation to  Leeds  and has supposedly been told by the government to make its content less London-centric.

[Tre Cool]

He's talking sense i guess but these innovative and brilliant marketing gurus at Warrington haven't achieved that much have they? 1k on attendances? 5% up on last year's sales to date? Seems a bit poor to me from a fairly low starting point in one of the biggest towns in pro RL with no other team in town. 

[Dave T]

2 minutes ago, Tre Cool said:

He's talking sense i guess but these innovative and brilliant marketing gurus at Warrington haven't achieved that much have they? 1k on attendances? 5% up on last year's sales to date? Seems a bit poor to me from a fairly low starting point in one of the biggest towns in pro RL with no other team in town. 

Yes, it is right that we spin decent increases into a negative. 

[absentee thoughtlord]

9 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Yes, it is right that we spin decent increases into a negative. 

Exactly. If I were 5 per cent up on last year with still a month to go I would be made up. Not normal in sport.

[Mr Plow]

1 hour ago, Wolford6 said:

Channel 4 would be better. It's moving a large section of the organisation to  Leeds  and has supposedly been told by the government to make its content less London-centric.

Why not sell packages like other sports do? Why not initially sell Magic Weekend to Channel 4 as a test and if it’s a success offer them a package

[Tre Cool]

8 hours ago, absentee thoughtlord said:

Exactly. If I were 5 per cent up on last year with still a month to go I would be made up. Not normal in sport.

5% up on this point last year, not in total.  Obviously it's better than going backwards i just find it strange that they're held up as the benchmark for innovative and smart marketing with such minimal results.

[Just Browny]

8 hours ago, Tre Cool said:

He's talking sense i guess but these innovative and brilliant marketing gurus at Warrington haven't achieved that much have they? 1k on attendances? 5% up on last year's sales to date? Seems a bit poor to me from a fairly low starting point in one of the biggest towns in pro RL with no other team in town. 

Are you saying those aren't significant increases with a straight face?

[ELBOWSEYE]

1 hour ago, Just Browny said:

Are you saying those aren't significant increases with a straight face?

He may be a typical negative fan but he does have a point,  the club doesnt get the best out of the area it has but under the present team they are starting to put building blocks in place. The typical knockers like Tre cool simply look for the negative on any positive, I want to see 13k of home fans as an average in the next few years with a few sell outs and it is possible with building on what they did last season. 

[roughyedspud]

9 hours ago, Mr Plow said:

Why not sell packages like other sports do? Why not initially sell Magic Weekend to Channel 4 as a test and if it’s a success offer them a package

I've been saying that for years..

Split it into 2 packages..

Package 1 - Thursday,Friday,Saturday ,1 live game per day plus Easter & magic (aimed at subscription TV)

Package 2 - a live Sunday game plus whole round highlights show (aimed at FTA)

Sky could,in theory,own both packages with package 1 on sky sports and package 2 on pick TV..the sky own FTA channel

[Oliver Clothesoff]

Magic on free-to-air TV could be huge for the game, especially if more is done to make it feel more like an event for those attending in person.

As for a subscription type broadcaster, I think that’s the way Football will go, whether through a current broadcaster or they create their own and it would be naive not to look at those avenues as a sport. 

I think the Championship, League One and the amateur game could/should be looking at their own TV deal. I see second division Spanish Football and the British Basketball League has all games live and available to watch on YouTube. 

[Dave T]

3 minutes ago, Oliver Clothesoff said:

Magic on free-to-air TV could be huge for the game, especially if more is done to make it feel more like an event for those attending in person.

 

I tend to agree. If we could get the BBC as a partner for this to give us 2 full days coverage, I would go all out to sell it out (or get a very bustling 80% to maintain the seating flexibility) and use it as a two day promotion of how entertaining and fun SL is.

Removing that from the current TV deal like the couple of special rounds that Amazon Prime secured for the Premier league would be a good move imho.

[Copa]

Interesting article about the rapidly declining NBA TV ratings.

Ratings are down yet popularity is up. It’s a whole new world in sports broadcasting 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/12/24/nba-ratings-decline-explanation-espn-tnt-abc-adam-silver/#comments-wrapper

[Mr Plow]

25 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

Magic is entirely wrong for Amazon and terrestrial.

It's a product that works on sky but doesnt really work elsewhere.

On terrestrial it's too short to make a break through in terms of building an affiliation. It also would take up a whole weekend of a terrestrial channel which is very unlikely 

For Amazon or Netflix et al they are on demand so would want all games available anyway. In that context magic is only a.different schedule.

The ideal package imo would be a 26 game (I.e 1 per round) plus half the playoffs and GF and 2 CC games per round and final and england internationals sold to terrestrial, 

52 game (I.e 2 per round) plus magic all playoffs and GF to pay tv

Then SL to buy the NRL rights, championship and L1 rights, and none terrestrial CC games, plus new properties such as winter a 9s series, friendlies or second cup comp, none england internationals plus all SL games and package them as an over the top service sold direct on line and wholesale to distributors, sky, netflix, amazon, BT, Virgin, etc. 

Sell it cheap to terrestrial to create interest and drive subscriptions to pay tv, Pay tg gives a guaranteed income and reach, both drive subscriptions to OTP service. 

Three levels of product, terrestrial form the uninitiated, pay tv for the sports fans, OTP service for the fan.

No I think magic could work on FTA. I’d sell it as a package along with a highlights program. That way the broadcaster would have content every week.

Although you put in the contract that the highlights have to be shown in a certain time slot not at 1am in the north only.

[Dave T]

31 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

Magic is entirely wrong for Amazon and terrestrial.

It's a product that works on sky but doesnt really work elsewhere.

On terrestrial it's too short to make a break through in terms of building an affiliation. It also would take up a whole weekend of a terrestrial channel which is very unlikely 

 

Not really. The BBC has highlights, and ideally you would sell it as part of a highlights package. Channel 5 have around 5 RU games a year but this is supported with highlights.

We have seen that the BBC are very happy to fill their schedule with sports, they do it pretty regularly.

[Just Browny]

Three criteria:

1. Which broadcaster is going to get us the most eyes on screens (NOT just which broadcaster has the biggest reach, how are they going to get folk to watch - everyone has Movies4Men but I would never look there)

2. How much money are they giving us.

3. How good is the coverage going to be.

Probably in that order of priority, but all crucial.

[Dave T]

4 minutes ago, Just Browny said:

Three criteria:

1. Which broadcaster is going to get us the most eyes on screens (NOT just which broadcaster has the biggest reach, how are they going to get folk to watch - everyone has Movies4Men but I would never look there)

2. How much money are they giving us.

3. How good is the coverage going to be.

Probably in that order of priority, but all crucial.

Yes, there is definitely a trade off to be had between 1 and 2 rather than number 2 being the only criteria.

 

[Tre Cool]

3 hours ago, Just Browny said:

Are you saying those aren't significant increases with a straight face?

Yes, in the case of a very noisy and highly thought of marketing department I think they are poor.  5% of say 7000 season tickets would be 350 more season tickets.  Sure it's positive but it seems Hull are posting similar results without this super modern smart marketing Wire apparently have.  +1k average on attendances last year was pretty good I guess but it's a big town and their attendances aren't great considering.

[Tre Cool]

2 hours ago, ELBOWSEYE said:

He may be a typical negative fan but he does have a point,  the club doesnt get the best out of the area it has but under the present team they are starting to put building blocks in place. The typical knockers like Tre cool simply look for the negative on any positive, I want to see 13k of home fans as an average in the next few years with a few sell outs and it is possible with building on what they did last season. 

I'm not a 'typical negative fan' at all, I'm making one point about one particular issue.

[Kayakman]

2 minutes ago, Tre Cool said:

Yes, in the case of a very noisy and highly thought of marketing department I think they are poor.  5% of say 7000 season tickets would be 350 more season tickets.  Sure it's positive but it seems Hull are posting similar results without this super modern smart marketing Wire apparently have.  +1k average on attendances last year was pretty good I guess but it's a big town and their attendances aren't great considering.

Hopefully overall attendances increase...fast or slow its a good thing...we need to keep the momentum going...new interests with some new clubs are part of it.....

[Chris22]

A few years ago in the Super 8's, I seem to recall Sky broadcasting some games online alongside the TV game? I assume it mustn't have been too much of a success as it didn't return.

I am cautious of us having all games televised for the impact it may have on attendances. I think an excellent start would be to have a handful of games on another channel, preferably FTA in the way that rugby union do.

For example, maybe one of the opening fixtures, a couple of games over Easter or strategically arrange a televised game for a Bank Holiday Monday, which we rarely do, or this year the Bank Holiday Friday on VE Day.

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

How about this idea for creative broadcasting rights, we could build up a fan base in other countries, say France and Canada, then sell the tv rights in those countries as well as the UK.

[Dave T]

7 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

Not a whole weekend though. We arent going to get the BBC put 16hrs of live RL on in a weekend, the other channels definitely arent going to do so

And if we did what next? Wait a year for more SL on terrestrial?

1 game a week with a highlights package on terrestrial would the ideal imo. 

We see it for modest athletics tournaments that they are very happy to clear their schedules - probably BBC2. 

The idea of terrestrial TV showing 1 live game per week is more outlandish. 

BBC have weekly highlights, they have extended highlights of the playoffs and Grand Final, they have the Challenge Cup, showing the likes of Wigan, Wire, Saints etc who will feature at Magic. They also show internationals. There is plenty of supporting content to create a narrative. 

[Dave T]

1 minute ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

How about this idea for creative broadcasting rights, we could build up a fan base in other countries, say France and Canada, then sell the tv rights in those countries as well as the UK.

Well we currently have a value of -£250k in France, so some way to go. This is after a decade or so of major networks showing SL in France. 

[Oliver Clothesoff]

1 minute ago, Dave T said:

We see it for modest athletics tournaments that they are very happy to clear their schedules - probably BBC2. 

The idea of terrestrial TV showing 1 live game per week is more outlandish. 

BBC have weekly highlights, they have extended highlights of the playoffs and Grand Final, they have the Challenge Cup, showing the likes of Wigan, Wire, Saints etc who will feature at Magic. They also show internationals. There is plenty of supporting content to create a narrative. 

BBC have two channels and a red button option, any Magic Weekend would not need to dominate one channel all weekend and could easily be distributed across the three channels quite easily. 

I think, from memory, Magic tends to move across Sky channels and doesn’t dominate one channel so a FTA channel could easily do the same.