Rugby Union TV talks halt
Reports suggest FOX Sports will walk away from negotiations with Rugby Australia.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under Subscription
Negotiations tactics over Rugby Union have seen News Corp report that their own FOX Sports is set to walk away from the sport after talks came to a halt yesterday.
According to the Daily Telegraph, RA chief executive Raelene Castle and Foxtel CEO Patrick Delaney have not spoken face to face in weeks.
The existing television deal, worth a total $285 million runs to the end of this year.
There is speculation RA may make a deal with 10 and Optus.
“Rugby Australia’s preparations for the next five year rights period have led to a key focus on creating alignment across the rugby competitions in Australia,” a spokesman said.
“Our strategy is to provide an integrated whole of rugby presentation to our fans and, importantly, we are confident that there is real interest from the market in this content.”
RA will present its package to the open market within a fortnight.
Foxtel recently released commentator Nick McArdle and former Wallaby Drew Mitchell and cut their weekly rugby show.
2 Responses
As NZ and South Africa have signed their 5 year broadcast deals the package would not be complete for them without Australia and Foxtel.
NewsCorp has many global interests not least in the UK and Europe, the link up of sports broadcast material adds to rugby’s overall commercial value, I cant see Optus providing anything like what Foxtel can offer, so maybe Foxtel is playing a game of corporate brinkmanship to see who will blink first.
More than a few comments put the blame on Raelene Castle, but this dilemma for Rugby Australia was always coming especially now when Foxtel is restructuring its resources for the streaming age.
RA is not in a good negotiating position and it will potentially be in an even worse position financially. Keeping the union game relevant in the professional rugby world without Foxtel will after this year see any new player like Optus potentially taking on…
Rugby is a mess. Club Rugby and the National Competition are semi-professional only of interest to few people and have been carried on the ABC and 72. Super Rugby covers spans the entire Southern Hemisphere causing large time-differences and has had to be reorganised into a conference system to contain costs. It is no longer covered on FTA. The only popular games are international tests against Australia, England, South Africa and the Lions. They are simulcast between FTA and Fox Sports.
RA is trying to follow cricket and raise a lot more money by selling one package that covers everything. But nobody is interested. in that. Except maybe Optus who would want exclusive rights to stream the internationals, which would effectively wipe out Union as a popular sport.