SMH wrote:Scrooge-like rights bid feared by NRL
By Roy Masters
March 18, 2005
http://www.smh.com.au/news/League/Scroo ... 38628.html
Fans will be winners of heavyweight box bout
Channel Nine may be the only player bidding for NRL rights should the united bid for AFL rights by channels Seven and Ten be successful.
And given owner Kerry Packer's past record of extracting the best deal for himself when rugby league has been on its knees begging, the code fears a pitiful payment.
Of course, Seven and Ten may also pitch for NRL rights, but insofar as both want three AFL games each and have committed to promote the code in NSW and Queensland, it's unlikely.
Fox Sports now televises three AFL games live and - under the Seven-Ten proposal - would be handed the worst two games of the AFL's eight-game week.
Nevertheless, the marginal value of NRL to Fox Sports, which now televises three of its five rugby league games live, would increase if it lost one AFL game.
Similarly, the NRL would be worth more to Nine if it were no longer televising Australian football.
However, Nine owns 50 per cent of Fox Sports, with News Ltd controlling the other half.
Rugby league chiefs fear a combined Nine-Fox Sports offer for rights which would not reflect the enhanced value of the code should the Seven-Ten joint venture be successful with the AFL.
For this reason, ARL chairman Colin Love, one of the league heavyweights discussing the issue over breakfast at Coogee yesterday, favours splitting the free-to-air and pay TV rights, obviously to create a bidding war between Nine and Fox Sports.
News Ltd, which owns half the NRL, can't really lose because money which it pays from its TV pocket ends up in its sports pocket.
Packer, though, won't like bidding against himself.
Long-term league men recall the 1990 bankruptcy of Ten when Packer managed to secure the rights and sell them back to Ten for a price lower than the NSW Rugby League's discounted offer to the on-its-knees network.
They also recall the 10-year deal forced upon them by Packer when peace between him and Rupert Murdoch was achieved at the end of the Super League war.
Still, news of the Seven-Ten bid didn't upset NRL chief executive David Gallop when he breakfasted with Love yesterday.
Gallop is seeking to line up the free-to-air and pay TV rights so they expire the same year.
Nine's rights conclude in 2007 and Fox Sports' finish a year earlier.
He is now in negotiations with Fox Sports for a further year of rights fees, meaning a 2007 finish for both.
Gallop said he was not surprised by the Seven-Ten AFL news.
"It was always possible," he said. "I still think we can do a good deal."
Asked the prospects of a single bid by Nine-Fox Sports, he replied: "We don't know who might be a player by the time they are negotiated. There are any number of permutations.
"I've been talking to Nine and Fox Sports the last few weeks but with the free-to-air rights still three years to go, there's not much we can do unless the broadcasters want to talk."
It is understood that part of Seven's offer to the AFL is handing over Melbourne's Telstra Dome stadium to the sport years earlier than the present agreement requires.
Poor little NRL. The major TV networks just dont seem interested. Looks like Channel 9 and Fox will keep the NRL TV rights but pay substantially less for them now that Channel 7 and 10 have stated they are only interested in the AFL. Once again, further proof that the AFL is by far the biggest and most dominant footy code in Australia. You could even go as far as saying the biggest and most dominant sport in Australia. Well we already knew that anyway didn't we. :D
Interesting last paragraph in the above article too regarding Telstra Dome in Melbourne. Under AFL control, would the AFL be as accomodating of rival codes who seek to host matches in Melbourne? :<>
