Australian Rugby Union signs new $285m television deal

[travelling_gerry]

Australian Rugby Union signs new $285m television deal

• Jamie Pandaram
• The Daily Telegraph
• December 16, 2015 7:19PM

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THE Australian Rugby Union has secured a $285 million broadcast deal that includes screening a Super Rugby match on free-to-air television for the first time.

The five-year deal means the cash-strapped ARU has yielded $57 million per year, much more than the previously estimated $40 million per annum.
The boost has come on the back of British broadcaster Sky Sports significantly bumping up their offer to show games in the UK, while the deal is negotiated in US dollars and therefore the exchange rate has worked in Australia’s favour.
The new deal will involve the same traditional players, Fox Sports and Channel Ten.



While Ten will continue to show all Wallabies Test matches, they will also broadcast a delayed Super Rugby match each Sunday morning, as well as a highlights show of all games on Monday night.
Fox Sports will broadcast every match of the new, expanded Super Rugby tournament live.
SANZAR will introduce three new teams into the tournament in 2016; the Sunwolves from Japan, the Jaguars from Argentina, and South Africa’s Southern Kings, although concerns remain about the slow progress of the Sunwolves - who do not have a coach or publicised roster - and the Kings who are caught up in financial and political turmoil.







But the bumper pay day for the ARU comes at just the right time, after the organisation bled money these past two years.
Wallabies stars had to agree to take cuts to their match fees in order to keep the business afloat, but will now benefit from the new deal.
The ARU is also expected to put a large amount of money towards the development of women’s rugby, which is seen as the biggest potential growth area for the sport.

[shasta]

Hate to play the wet blanket. But: the AFL were the first to grab a really big TV deal. They wisely used a good portion of that to invest in junior development in NSW and Qld. Now the Mungos are making it a belated priority to try and match that. I can't see $57 mill a year getting the ARU into that ball park.

[beige]

Australian Rugby Union boss Bill Pulver says he's delighted with the ARU's new $285 million TV contract despite conceding it is "meagre pickings" compared to the AFL's and NRL's billion-dollar broadcast deals.

Pulver hailed the 148 per cent increase in broadcast revenue - which he said now amounted to about 45 per cent of the ARU's total annual income - as a "terrific windfall" that would significantly boost the governing body's ailing coffers.

"We are now in terrific shape financially," he said.

"There's substantial new money coming into the game which we can invest from the grassroots through the professional side of the game."

While conceding Australian rugby's slice of the SANZAR pie was short of the AFL's new $2.5 billion six-year broadcast deal or the NRL's $1.8 billion five-year deal, Pulver said it was comparable on a per-game basis.

Pulver also indicated the SANZAR deal would be close to $1 billion in total when the New Zealand and South African unions revealed their cuts.

But the ARU chief could only dream of the huge money the TV types were pouring into the AFL and NRL.

"Anything with a 'B' in front of it is clearly tempting but we are very, very happy with our meagre pickings," Pulver said after reaching an agreement that would allow Fox Sports to continue its 20-year partnership and the Ten Network to remain the free-to-air broadcaster.

"To achieve a 148 per cent growth in revenue from your broadcast outcome, I suspect is the largest increase of any code and it reflects, I think, the growing status that we enjoy in the Australian sporting landscape.

Read more at http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/2015/12/1...mjoFSh7expZ.99

[Sheikh]

From the article:

And for the first time, Network Ten will show a full replay of the Australian match of the round every Sunday morning plus provide a one-hour Super Rugby highlights show each Monday night.

Any bets on that Australian match of the round featuring the Waratahs every week?

[Buddha Handy]

From the article:

Any bets on that Australian match of the round featuring the Waratahs every week?

Yes and does Sunday morning mean like 10am when people can actually watch it or will in be more like 2am on the Saturday night.

[jargan83]

From the article:

Any bets on that Australian match of the round featuring the Waratahs every week?

Sydney is the biggest TV market in Australia so it would make sense.

Maybe they've got an AFL style deal to have the local teams shown in the local FTA markets but I'm not going to hold my breath.

[Alison]

I'm extremely interested to see how they are going to distribute this new pot of gold and how/if it will affect the salary cap.

Maybe they've already given the Reds their newly increased share so they can pay Stephen Moore......!! Gotta say, if the tone and content of the Brumbies' media statement is anything to go by, Moore has been a bit disingenuous in his negotiations.

[GIGS20]

Well Moore did grow up in Queensland