News Corp. and Nine Entertainment Company "are expected to hold a closed-door meeting involving senior management" within weeks as they seek to "break the impasse" on the National Rugby League’s sports broadcasting rights deal, according to Davidson & Mitchell of THE AUSTRALIAN. Despite suggestions News Corp. subsidiary Fox Sports was "close to clinching an agreement for the pay-TV rights with the NRL as soon as this week," sources said that the two sides remained "a long way from signing a contract." Under a proposed scenario, league fans would have access to two live Friday night games with Fox Sports broadcasting a 6pm Friday night game staged in Auckland, Brisbane or Townsville. And free-to-air broadcaster Nine would televise an 8pm game on the same evening, "helping to deliver" the NRL a A$1.85B ($1.32B) payday. The deal, which would hand Fox Sports five live games, "is contingent on Nine surrendering its Saturday prime-time game" to Fox for about A$30M ($21.4M) a year, or A$150M ($107M) over five years. Nine "could also raise" an additional A$25M ($17.8M) by selling simulcast rights to Fox Sports. Although sources at Nine claim newly installed CEO Hugh Marks is "under no immediate pressure to cut costs amid persistently soft conditions in the advertising market," the company is said to be "keen to reduce its massive outlay" on NRL matches. Pressed on "whether Nine needed to cut the costs" of the contract signed in August, Marks said, "Not if we're happy with the deal we've got" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 11/16).
