Every National Rugby League game in every round will be shown live on TV for the first time in rugby league history as part of the NRL's "soon-to-be-secured" A$1.7B ($1.24B) broadcast deal, according to Phil Rothfield of the Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH. New elements of negotiations for the "richest television contract in Australian sporting history" are expected to include "sweeping changes to match scheduling." The deal would go from '18 until the end of the '22 season. The "key developments:"
- FOX Sports is bidding to show every match live, the same as it does in the Australian Football League.
- The double-game schedule on Friday nights "will be scrapped, replaced by one on Thursday nights to get the stronger prime-time, free-to-air ratings." Fans will no longer have to "sit up until midnight to watch a delayed telecast of the second game with more than 70 advertisements."
- The future of Monday night football on Fox Sports "is in doubt because the NRL does not want to play its rounds over five days and potentially fatigue its audiences."
Struggling clubs and elite players "will be the biggest winners" when annual grants are expected to increase toward A$12M ($8.73M) for each club and A$11M ($8M) for the salary cap. This is a move that should "finally get all 16 clubs onside after months of unrest and even threats by 12 non-aligned NRL clubs to refuse to sign new participation agreements" and possibly lead to a breakaway. The future of Monday night football "is in doubt under the new
negotiations because the games are so poorly attended," with an average
crowd figure of only 11,250 this year (
DAILY TELEGRAPH, 8/4).
TEN DEAL CAUSES CONCERN: In Sydney, Mason & Stensholt reported Foxtel's purchase of 15% of the Ten Network "could give Rupert Murdoch's global media conglomerate News Corporation too much power over Australian sport," opponents of the deal say. Any terrestrial TV network bidding for the right to broadcast sporting events "would have to co-operate with pay-TV network Foxtel," which is 50%-owned by News Corp., and "there are fears in the media industry and professional sport that Foxtel would want to include Ten in any deal." A source suggested that the two main football codes "might receive only one offer each:" a joint bid from Ten and Foxtel or Fox Sports, which is 100%-owned by News Corp., and either Nine Entertainment Co. or Seven West Media. The Australian Football League and National Rugby League "would like record-breaking broadcast deals" of A$1.5B ($1.09B)-A$2B ($1.45B) each over five years. They hope for "intense competition between free-to-air networks" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 8/3).
