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"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
Exile
Port Macquarie
"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you! You’re better than that!" - Rocky Balboa
For what its worth, I am absolutely astounded that Rugby Australia managed to put together a deal with Channel 9/StanSport and managed to extract the money from them that they did.
I didn't think that they would be able to put together a deal worth half the price or even less.
Hamish McLellan, He who must not be named and the team at RugbyAustralia really should be congratulated. They just might save the game from financial ruin.
Exile
Port Macquarie
"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you! You’re better than that!" - Rocky Balboa
Good question. According to the below the deal is a little higher. Make of it what you will.
Rugby's 'fantasy' TV deal puts the wind back in game's sails
By Chris Barrett
November 9, 2020 — 7.45pm
It was at Middle Harbour Yacht Club, after Rob Clarke and Patrick Delany finished their sailing races on Saturday afternoon, that the interim Rugby Australia chief executive pulled the Foxtel boss aside to tell him the bad news.
The RA board had voted unanimously last Thursday night to sell their domestic rights to Nine and Stan in a landmark deal. It was a very rugby location for the pay television supremo to be told the 25-year partnership was at an end.
Clarke, who used to race in the same class as the Foxtel CEO and knows him well, gave the impression Delany took the unwanted outcome far more like Al Gore than Donald Trump.
“Patrick has been a consummate professional all the way through and he reacted accordingly,” Clarke said on Monday.
“He was disappointed, I'm sure ... but he understood it and he accepted it.”
A fresh start for a code much-maligned in Australia and an ambitious new venture for the media company that has picked it up, it is the end of an era for rugby and News Corp, which launched the professional game in the southern hemisphere.
Rugby's downward spiral in recent years - Super Rugby ratings plummeted 35 per cent in the five years between 2014 and 2019, according to Fox Sports - took the shine off the sport but as Delany pointed out on Monday, they would have preferred to keep it.
The parting comes a year after then RA chief Raelene Castle knocked back a $US25m a year offer from Fox to retain the rights from 2021 to 2025, sending relations between the parties south fast. Things improved with Clarke and a new chairman, Hamish McLennan, at the helm, but that same duo also ended up winning over a new pair of suitors, Nine chief Hugh Marks and Stan CEO Mike Sneesby, with Marks admitting he wouldn’t have entertained doing a deal with rugby amid the chaos of the previous regime.
After years of self-inflicted drama, from costly mistakes in the Israel Folau controversy to the soap opera of Michael Cheika’s reign over the Wallabies, it looks to be the best piece of business rugby has conducted in a long time.
Put together on the RA side by Clarke and John Knox, the former Credit Suisse Australia chief executive who negotiated Cricket Australia’s record $1.18 billion television contract two years ago, it is worth about $38 million a year over three years with an option for a further two.
Sources with knowledge of the deal say about $30m a year is in cash, with the rest in contra, and despite the impact of the pandemic on sports rights, Clarke said it comfortably surpassed the domestic component of RA’s previous $57m a year broadcast arrangement signed in 2015.
The key was in the timing. Nine, the owner of this masthead, was eager for a launch project for its new Stan Sport offering and by reducing its deal with the National Rugby League in May, it has effectively been able to pick up an entire sport.
Clarke said “the opportunity to get Super Rugby, in particular, on free-to-air television was a very significant factor” in siding with Nine, as was a chance to appeal to a younger audience with a refreshed presentation.
"The fantasy has become a reality for the Australian rugby community," Clarke said.
The deal is a groundbreaking one in that it’s the first in Australia in which one media entity controls the rights to a major sport in front of and behind a paywall.
That said, it is not without question marks. One is whether Super Rugby, a product that has been on a steep decline, can be dressed up enough to be a strong enough free-to-air performer on Saturday nights for Nine. Another is whether there are enough games in the "showbag", as Clarke called it, to drive subscriptions to Stan Sport, which will be a separate cost to Stan itself.
Rugby has a loyal core audience but gauging it's exact size has been made more challenging because Foxtel never revealed its Kayo numbers for rugby, even to RA, in a move interpreted by the sport as a bid to keep the rights price down. At the heart of the matter is how many of those rugby supporters who have Foxtel’s sports streaming service will migrate to Stan.
Marks is confident the game will be profitable for Nine.
“You just get that sense that it’s a great time to get into rugby,” he said.
It’s not something many people have said about the sport in Australia for a while. But two days after a rare triumph over the All Blacks by a youthful Wallabies, the game looks finally headed for some smooth sailing.
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-u...09-p56cy0.html
Nice to see the Boys Clubs still going strong, Rob Clarke only had to swap cliques to make sure he still has ‘mates’.
Any one keeping Fox... quit anyway and save a bundle. I did and they've been ringing to offer me basic + sport + drama + movies + HD for 29 a month. Desperate times?
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
Clarke, who used to race in the same class as the Foxtel CEO and knows him well, gave the impression Delany took the unwanted outcome far more like Al Gore than Donald Trump.
Apparently Al Gore disputed the result of his election race vs Bush and took the election result to court. It took five weeks to get a result after going all the way to the US Supreme Court.
Im trying to figure out how to Keep Kayo. Im loving the coverage of Formula 1. Qualifying and Race.
Really don't want to give it up.
But definitely will be signing up for StanRugby
Exile
Port Macquarie
"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you! You’re better than that!" - Rocky Balboa
Just saw on Instagram that Stan have signed up the rights for Wimbledon and the French Open.
Edit: Link to news article.
https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp.nine.com.au/article/886722ab-a1f0-4f17-b57e-a805fa5e35db
Last edited by jargan83; 12-11-20 at 19:39.
....and therein lies the problem for Fox. The content has been dwindling for years due to declining subs due to the advent of streaming...and on it will go. 29-a-month was tempting but not enough. I'd already geared up for streaming, joined Netflix and just waiting to see what arrangements Stan comes up with. I also think the situation might provide a boost for the NRL digital pass @ 8 bucks-a-month.
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
I guess the point for me is will STAN require joining STAN to access STANSport.
I have no need for STAN or NETFLIX
Exile
Port Macquarie
"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you! You’re better than that!" - Rocky Balboa
Very true. But I always thought basic+sport was well worth the fees - a 1 stop shop for swags of sport. Can't stop progress but the fragmentation of rights holders is the downside.
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
If you don't watch basic, then 29 dollars is too much, hell even kayo is 25 and that's the most expensive one. If you do watch shows that aren't on FTA, you could do worse than Amazon at 7 bucks a month or Disney at 9 bucks a month. My prediction, hell yeah you'll be required to get Stan to access Stan sport, they'd be idiots not to. They'd also be idiots to price the total package much higher than 25 bucks. The market is sitting at about 20 for high end services, they might get away with a bit more, but I can't imagine many punters would sign up for above 25. Theres also issues with retaining viewers. People like x who will get Stan just for the rugby could do with Stan what I do with kayo, deactivate it when the rugby's finished and reactivate in time for next year. A better business model would be to convert those people into loyal watchers over time and you have no chance of doing that if they're constantly bitching about price
C'mon the
I get that. But already, to get the sports I had access to a few years back I'd be up for a bunch. Optus for EPL. Stan for SR. NRL Digital pass. Rugby Pass on VPN for Gallagher Premiership. I don't even know how to watch Top 14 or UK Superleague. Now I didn't watch all of that content. But nice to be able to pick and choose. All that, along with FTA, recordable and series linked on one convenient platform will be missed big time
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David