Toronto home games on Sky

[Dave T]

29 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

The next contract is to be signed next year.

This year would have been perfect to introduce it. Get toronto and les Catalans to sort out the home broadcasts, in exchange for the overseas feeds sky cover the uk feeds.

Sky get 50 extra games even if we dont charge extra for then we create value overseas. 

Even if we dont get that from sky, do it ourselves and stream them. 

I suppose my point here is that Sky have those rights securely tied up - regular SL games staged in the UK are absolutely part of their output.

[Dave T]

42 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

They do but have shown previously they are happy to screen them or see them broadcast elsewhere when it comes to the overseas teams. 

We bemoan the lack of broadcast money from overseas yet wont do the very basic to create a compelling product for them. 

Sky have screened the Les Catalans games and did Toronto last year. Its hard to believe that there isnt a valuable product out there for them and the overseas broadcasters.

Even if initially that cost falls to us there is 1.8m in Torontos TV funding that could have been spent there. 

There has been criticism for elstone not selling the French rights. That criticism is misplaced, you cant sell what people dont want to pay for. The criticism and it should be a much bigger criticism, is that he hasnt created a tv product worth anything. 

I agree with the overall principle, however I think there are a few things that urge caution. 

Firstly, I'd be stunned if the conversations with overseas broadcasters who aren't interested in paying didn't involve a 'what would make you interested' discussion. i.e. the negotiators would know whether giving the French broadcaster every Catalans game live would add millions in value. If it did it would be a no-brainer. Unfortunately I don't think it would move the dial from -£250k to +£1m or so, and that is the challenge. Same with TWP, nobody is prepared to pay, but I'm not convinced them showing an extra 10 away games would be the difference either - based on home games plus a regular selection of away games being shown already.

A way of looking at this is if Manchester set up a CFL team and regularly got 10k, would Sky or BT pay good money for that comp because of the Manchester team. I'm not so sure, so we imho need to be prepared for a long haul without any kind of value (as in commercial £'s) from Canada (as we have seen from France).

I also think we need to be careful of spending our own money to broadcast games. All we are doing there is reducing our own TV deal voluntarily to go into a territory that brings no value at the moment. 

The hope has to be that the next deal can have the level of flexibility and interest to make it valuable as a whole.

[dealwithit]

11 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

I dont think it would add millions in value right now. That value has to be created by us. 

How much value could 13 games, on a year by year basis really be worth? Why are BeIn for instance going to invest more in to Rugby League for half Les Catalans game and possibly see that investment look worthless next year.

The game needs a coherent plan for creating value in the markets not this year but 3-5years in the future.

That starts with getting people exposed to the game. 

We have to create a product that finds viewers in these markets. We cant do that hiding the games away. 

We need to remember that we arent (or shouldn't be) selling les Catalans to france and toronto to canada, but super league to these markets. Seeing their team every week is what gives the competition context and meaning and creates the wider value for the competition. 

And that works here as well. Toronto and les Catalans games can be sold back to us. And whilst sky probably arent going to pay millions per year for them on their own. We cant pretend the rights to 4 games per week arent more valuable than 2.

 

I’ve been saying for years that SL/RFL lacks a coherent strategic plan for 3-5 years. Broadcast, teams, geography, sponsorship etc. 

[nmew]

22 hours ago, Dave T said:

The TWP home games are currently scheduled for Saturdays 6.30pm UK time, which isn't a great slot as it could clash with Catalans. Hopefully they would be able to put Catalans at 4.30pm if they were to secure two TV deals for these where there is a clash. 

I think Catalans away games are broadcast pretty much as much as other teams. 

As recently as the end of December, Catalans had no broadcast deal in place for their games in France, according to Phil Caplan.

[audois]

On 17/01/2020 at 11:55, scotchy1 said:

Should be 4 every week. Toronto and Les Catalans need to be screened home and away.

We are never going to realise the value of those markets while only half the games are really in anyway accessible. 

Les Catalans and toronto, 5:30 and 7:30 home and away. 

Bernard Guasch is hoping to secure something next week. I think they're saying that Sky will cover 5 home fixtures in 2020 so they need someone else to cover the other nine. The Vià Occitanie people who have covered Elite 1 games of late are interested - their coverage is regional based from Toulouse. The chairman says though Eurosport are still in the picture too. Bein Sport will still continue with their NRL coverage in 2020.

[Dave T]

5 minutes ago, audois said:

Bernard Guasch is hoping to secure something next week. I think they're saying that Sky will cover 5 home fixtures in 2020 so they need someone else to cover the other nine. The Vià Occitanie people who have covered Elite 1 games of late are interested - their coverage is regional based from Toulouse. The chairman says though Eurosport are still in in picture too. Bein Sport will still continue with their NRL coverage in 2020.

It would be great news if the next week sees announcements about TWP and Catalans SL rights. I'd even forgive the shoddy performance of the SL website (for a bit). 

[TIWIT]

On 17/01/2020 at 08:35, scotchy1 said:

I dont think it would add millions in value right now. That value has to be created by us. 

How much value could 13 games, on a year by year basis really be worth? Why are BeIn for instance going to invest more in to Rugby League for half Les Catalans game and possibly see that investment look worthless next year.

The game needs a coherent plan for creating value in the markets not this year but 3-5years in the future.

That starts with getting people exposed to the game. 

We have to create a product that finds viewers in these markets. We cant do that hiding the games away. 

We need to remember that we arent (or shouldn't be) selling les Catalans to france and toronto to canada, but super league to these markets. Seeing their team every week is what gives the competition context and meaning and creates the wider value for the competition. 

And that works here as well. Toronto and les Catalans games can be sold back to us. And whilst sky probably arent going to pay millions per year for them on their own. We cant pretend the rights to 4 games per week arent more valuable than 2.

 

Pretty accurate assessment. The key is getting the games on TV. Exposure builds interest. The less interested (the casual fan) will at least watch the games on TV. The more interested fan will eventually be enticed out to go out and watch a game live.

But games have to be broadcast.