TV Deal to conclude end of June

[ATLANTISMAN]

Good news if channel 4 are showing more matches 

Edited August 24, 2023 by ATLANTISMAN

[OnStrike]

4 minutes ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

Am hearing SKY have demanded 14 clubs for the new deal

Surely would have been sorted before a deal was done?

[Chrispmartha]

40 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

I thought all the benefits are of the upping of money coming into the sport?

Your argument Chris is all supposition that more coverage MIGHT get added revenue streams, be it more subscriptions (but we have a set figure for the next 3 years), bigger sponsorship streams, increased attendances, as I said to Tommy only time will tell.

Harry your argument that attendances will drop is supposition as well. Unless you can show me where you're getting the facts to support your argument from?

If the clubs cannot leverage the fact that hundreds of thousands if not millions more people will see their club through the season then they need to get better people in that can.

 

Shutting the sport away so fewer people can see it is a ridiculously backward thing to do.

[Chrispmartha]

31 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Yes fair point, but using my analogy of 4 people sharing the viewing for the subscription prices I should think they would still be in pocket, and watch their favourites in each and every league fixture.

And what if let's say its 4 more people that wouldn't usually watch the game live but now can pay that subscription to watch it.

I just don't get the argument for making the sport less visible unless it's based on clear evidence that attendances would be so badly affected that it out weighs the positives.

 

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

44 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

I wondered when favouritism would come into the discussion, sorry but I do not see Toulouse to be any more worthy than a number of other Championship clubs - put names in as you please, but quite obviously that is not nessacary you have already stated your intention.

We're all allowed our preferences. I don't have any power, so you can't call it an intention. I'd like Toulouse in on merit, life's full of opinions so that's mine. 

[crashmon]

question I have is if we have 14 clubs in SL, then 14 in Champ, that leaves 6 or 7 in League 1?  Does League 1 remain viable here? Not sure of the future of League 1

 

[Chrispmartha]

7 minutes ago, Hull Kingston Bronco said:

We're all allowed our preferences. I don't have any power, so you can't call it an intention. I'd like Toulouse in on merit, life's full of opinions so that's mine. 

Yep. my preference would be York and Toulouse in SL and a 14 team league. But it's easy to say that on a message board without having access to everything.

As you say Id like them there on Merit, but my opinion on what merit is all be different to Harrys is I'm sure.

[Monkeymagic22]

1 minute ago, Chrispmartha said:

Yep. my preference would be York and Toulouse in SL and a 14 team league. But it's easy to say that on a message board without having access to everything.

As you say Id like them there on Merit, but my opinion on what merit is all be different to Harrys is I'm sure.

Merit in sport, being success on the field/track.

[Barley Mow]

9 minutes ago, crashmon said:

question I have is if we have 14 clubs in SL, then 14 in Champ, that leaves 6 or 7 in League 1?  Does League 1 remain viable here? Not sure of the future of League 1

 

I imagine we would go from having SL-12, Champ-14, L1-10, to having SL-14, Champ-12, L1-10.

The Championship could end up introducing loop fixtures.

A 10 team League 1 is still a problem for me - less than that certainly would be.

Edited August 24, 2023 by Barley Mow

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

4 minutes ago, Monkeymagic22 said:

Merit in sport, being success on the field/track.

Merit in sports business, including commercial sustainability and whether you add value to the other members of the competition, in order to grow the commercial value of the sport for all stakeholders. 

If I wanted amateur sport, I'd watch the community game. 

[Whippet13]

39 minutes ago, OnStrike said:

Surely would have been sorted before a deal was done?

Could be from 2025 - when the new IMG structure starts and who it is based on their criteria.

IMG have already given 14 clubs as the ideal number so maybe this is Sky pushing things that way.

[Chrispmartha]

14 minutes ago, Monkeymagic22 said:

Merit in sport, being success on the field/track.

So would you have put Catalans in SL?

[Harry Stottle]

1 hour ago, Hull Kingston Bronco said:

We're all allowed our preferences. I don't have any power, so you can't call it an intention. I'd like Toulouse in on merit, life's full of opinions so that's mine. 

On merit is quite a different discussion to your previous statement, and on that one I would sooner the merit be what enabled this years Challenge cup finalists to compete in SL by their on field performances and not by promotion through a spreadsheet method, but as you said in your previous post we all have our own preferences.

Edited August 24, 2023 by Harry Stottle

[JM2010]

2 hours ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

Good news if channel 4 are showing more matches 

How much are they paying for the matches?

[steve oates]

4 hours ago, HawkMan said:

21.5 million not 23 is reported, so almost a 50% reduction from the heyday of 40m. There's other sports on Sky who don't get anything like 21.5 m , so we count our blessings there. But has any other sport had their sum reduced by so much as a percentage ? Genuine question, I've no idea.

https://www.totalrl.com/revealed-what-the-new-sky-sports-broadcasting-deal-is-worth-for-rugby-league-and-super-league/

The 50% reduction came at the end of a SKY contract that was originally negotiated with rivals  BT sport being interested.

This possible (that may have seen it probable then) competition seemed to heavily up the bidding from SKY, and that was to include the championship, League One  and new formats to up the content and the excitement.

Harry will remember it as Leigh were the major excitement in the championship play off......

In the end BT didn't bid and the planned hullabolu didn't raise viewing figures so the next contract bombed

Again Harry will know as he was in the thick of it

 

[RigbyLuger]

3 hours ago, Gomersall said:

I’ve asked the question elsewhere but is it confirmed that Sky are going to broadcast every SL game in every round? I don’t believe that’s the case so if someone wants to watch every match they will have to pay over and above their Sky subscription.

They're going to produce the coverage, not broadcast all games, which hasn't been made clear in some articles, but that's down to poor journalism rather than anything else.

[OnStrike]

4 minutes ago, RigbyLuger said:

They're going to produce the coverage, not broadcast all games, which hasn't been made clear in some articles, but that's down to poor journalism rather than anything else.

Seems like a very important point too that makes alot of other things possible 

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

1 hour ago, Harry Stottle said:

On merit is quite a different discussion to your previous statement, and on that one I would sooner the merit be what enabled this years Challenge cup finalists to compete in SL by their on field performances and not by promotion through a spreadsheet method, but as you said in your previous post we all have our own preferences.

I think our definition of "merit" will vary. We've had the assessment criteria defined by the RFL now though, so don't need to re-litigate it here eh, that's been done to death! 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

3 hours ago, Whippet13 said:

Could be from 2025 - when the new IMG structure starts and who it is based on their criteria.

IMG have already given 14 clubs as the ideal number so maybe this is Sky pushing things that way.

Given the fact the SL clubs have just scuppered an IMG proposal then I'd say there is precious little chance of many of their proposals happening 

The IMG project may be dead in the water by this time next year 

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

23 hours ago, JM2010 said:

5000 subscribers paying £100 per year works out at £500 000. This plus any money for terrestrial tv deal as well as the added exposure and potential sponsorship doesn’t make the deal any worse than the previous one

You'll never bridge a media rights gap through direct sales, even the Premier League couldn't do that. Media companies have a wider range of ways of monetising the sport's content, so it is worth more to them than it is to us in terms of direct revenue generation. We're miles away from that level of disintermediation in meansteam sports like NFL, NBA, top European football leagues etc, let alone challenger sports like ours with lower existing audiences. 

The value in the extra content is for marketing and audience growth, but if we have less money from media rights then that's a real-world problem we can't fix through that route I'm afraid.

 

Edited August 24, 2023 by Hull Kingston Bronco
typo

[Rugbyleaguesupporter]

@Hull Kingston Bronco while I agree that we would not get close to Sky money by direct sales (and nor would the premier league in UK), I think the poster is right that we can bridge what Sky are paying now (£24m ish) with what they will pay with new sales  

Let's say Sky pay £23m- we absolutely could get £1m difference through our league (notwithstanding that would be challenging) 

A much broader debate is whether we forfeit that £1m or whatever it is and increase reach. 

How do you monetarise extra reach? £1m is roughly 50,000 match tickets, what % extra will sponsors or advertisers pay? 

[HawkMan]

5 minutes ago, Rugbyleaguesupporter said:

@Hull Kingston Bronco while I agree that we would not get close to Sky money by direct sales (and nor would the premier league in UK), I think the poster is right that we can bridge what Sky are paying now (£24m ish) with what they will pay with new sales  

Let's say Sky pay £23m- we absolutely could get £1m difference through our league (notwithstanding that would be challenging) 

A much broader debate is whether we forfeit that £1m or whatever it is and increase reach. 

How do you monetarise extra reach? £1m is roughly 50,000 match tickets, what % extra will sponsors or advertisers pay? 

Unfortunately it's 21.5 million not the previously reported 23m

https://www.totalrl.com/revealed-what-the-new-sky-sports-broadcasting-deal-is-worth-for-rugby-league-and-super-league/

[Whippet13]

27 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Given the fact the SL clubs have just scuppered an IMG proposal then I'd say there is precious little chance of many of their proposals happening 

The IMG project may be dead in the water by this time next year 

They haven't scuppered it though have they? Just pushed back a decision on it by 12 months until something else is in place to generate equivalent fixtures - which sounds like one option may be going to 14 clubs at Sky's request. 

The IMG key proposal is happening - SL membership based on their qualification criteria - as its based on the best interest of the vast majority of SL clubs. A final vote has been taken and approved the changes, it'll take something pretty seismic to overturn that.

If SL clubs refuse Sky's requirement for 14 clubs (assuming that is true) then I am sure there will be another reduced deal on the table in 3 years - the clubs are very self interested, but they aren't suicidal.

[gingerjon]

3 minutes ago, Whippet13 said:

They haven't scuppered it though have they? Just pushed back a decision on it by 12 months until something else is in place to generate equivalent fixtures - which sounds like one option may be going to 14 clubs at Sky's request. 

The IMG key proposal is happening - SL membership based on their qualification criteria - as its based on the best interest of the vast majority of SL clubs. A final vote has been taken and approved the changes, it'll take something pretty seismic to overturn that.

If SL clubs refuse Sky's requirement for 14 clubs (assuming that is true) then I am sure there will be another reduced deal on the table in 3 years - the clubs are very self interested, but they aren't suicidal.

Who has reported the Sky request for 14 clubs?

[Futtocks]

1 hour ago, RigbyLuger said:

They're going to produce the coverage, not broadcast all games, which hasn't been made clear in some articles, but that's down to poor journalism rather than anything else.

One aspect of them managing the overall production is expected to be video referees at all SL fixtures, Sky or not.

That's a few hundred thousand pounds' added value per season (officials, equipment and crew) that isn't listed in the contract amount.

Edited August 24, 2023 by Futtocks