News Corp and Telstra will sell Foxtel in a US$2.2bn (A$3.4bn) deal, the companies announced on Monday.

[StillAtLarge]

Foxtel didn't want to pay for the Aus v SL tour, so Seven is stepping in to get the rights means its gonna be the first away tour broadcast on FTA since the 90s.

Theres probably a ton of complex reasons, but this is an incredibly bad early sign for the NRL.

Sbs hosted the 2005 Ashes (although I don't think it was exclusive). Simon Hill anchored from memory, Deano, Greg Matthews and a couple others were the analysts. It was awesome

 

[Cleavy]

Sbs hosted the 2005 Ashes (although I don't think it was exclusive). Simon Hill anchored from memory, Deano, Greg Matthews and a couple others were the analysts. It was awesome

Ashes away series is always broadcast on FTA though

 

[Fire]

Sorry i meant first FTA non ashes away tour since the 90s.

 

[whatwhatsaywhat]

Foxtel didn't want to pay for the Aus v SL tour, so Seven is stepping in to get the rights means its gonna be the first away tour broadcast on FTA since the 90s.

Theres probably a ton of complex reasons, but this is an incredibly bad early sign for the NRL.

i suspect that foxtel is not allowed to make any more deals while the sale to daz n is going thru, and then the daz n sale to the pif goes through

meanwhile, optus sport likely to be sold to ninefax

 

[Freomaniac]

DAZN is interested in getting the eyes of their target demographic that they can use to sign advertisers.

Not all viewers are created equal—- large companies want their products advertised in front of their intended audience.

An older audience is more likely to have less disposable income, be more loyal to existing brands and less willing to try new products.

Advertisers don't give a sh*# if 100,000 60-year-old Barry’s from Brisbane see their commercial if they aren't going to buy their product. They’d prefer to get the eyeballs of 20,000 25-year-old Brayden’s.

It’s why Love Island Australia still continues to be renewed despite its poor FTA ratings.

Yeah sounds about right. That 18 year old to 40 year old age bracket are the main people to chase after.

 

[Freomaniac]

Sports in Aus (not necessarily afl or nrl) have been killed by moving their product to a pay tv base over the last 20ish years.

Will be observing how this impacts all sports if subscription costs inch up, seems to really kill the prospects of a sport here once tv ratings dip.

Agreed. I still remember the AFL rights of 2002-2006 when Foxtel got the rights and channel 9 and 10 got 2 free to air games each. It worked out well back then.

AFL and NRL have enough TV viewers to the point there is enough AFL and NRL fans to pay Foxtel subscriptions.

A-league and Socceroos package at 40 million a year from 2013-17 was fine. Yep all 5 games a week on Foxtel but one Friday night game on free to air.

Socceroos ratings were on the decline as Football Federation Australia had that horrible 2006-13 tv rights deal at was only 17 million a year. All of the 2010 and 2014 world cup qualifiers games were on Foxtel

 

[Freomaniac]

Will be interesting to see what happens in the short term. I suspect the NRL is in trouble because there really isn''t any competition in pay TV, so who are they binding against? The commercial networks don't have any money to pick up the difference, and streaming networks would tank their reach even if they were interested to a significant degree. But who knows, it might go the other way and the NRL get a desperate boatload of cash. Dying industries can get a bit volatile. The AFL will be unaffected unless they go bankrupt.

Longer term it changes nothing tho. Play tv and commercial networks are on the way out, and the AFL is ultimatley going to own, not sell, their streaming directly through partnerships with platforms. I'm assuming other sports will too.

Yeah good points.

AFL tv rights deal is 9 games in Foxtel and 3 and a 1/2 games a week on free to air in channel 7 until 2031. So AFL is fine on that front.

NRL can't really ask for much more from Foxtel. The main reason I say that is because Foxtel is the only Cable or Subscription channel/ company in Australia.

This isn't the USA where there are 2 or 3 cable subscription channels like HBO or Showtime etc.

NRL free to air games on channel 9. They could negotiate 2 or 3 games a week with channel 7 or 10 (if Paramount is willing to pay) if NRL are not satisfied with 9