Rugby Australia Broadcast Negotiations
Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2025 7:24 am
With the “exclusive negotiating period” now over, Rugby Australia is free to talk to other potential broadcasters.
Rugby back on Kayo? Free to air still on Channel 9?
Broadcast bucks
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-unio ... 5kyxj.html
Rugby Australia’s broadcast deal with Nine Entertainment/Stan expires at the end of 2025, and the parties are currently in talks about extending for another five-year period, between 2026 and 2030.
RA and Nine (the publisher of this masthead)/Stan are in an “Exclusive Negotiating Period” (ENP) through to December 31. From January 1, Rugby Australia is free to talk to other potential broadcaster partners, but a deal could be struck before the end of the year.
RA chairman Daniel Herbert told this masthead earlier this month there is appeal to the “certainty” of extending with Nine/Stan, but only if “the price is right”. The current deal is worth $30m a year.
“Nine have been a great partner and we have a great relationship, but they got us a number of years ago at the lowest ebb,” Herbert said.
Whether there are other suitors for Rugby Australia’s broadcast offerings – primarily Test and Super Rugby matches – is the multimillion-dollar question. Reports surfaced this month that giant sports streaming company DAZN, backed by British-Ukrainian billionaire Len Blavatnik, is in talks with News Corp about buying Foxtel.
Whether that would translate to competitive tension for RA remains to be seen, but the governing body has made no secret of the need to secure an increase in broadcast revenue for the new five-year cycle.
Rugby Australia had paused contract talks with leading players, including Fraser McReight and Len Ikitau, in the last quarter of this year, waiting to get a picture of its likely broadcast revenue.
While a domestic deal will represent a majority of broadcast revenue, there are other global deals expected to bring in additional monies for RA. The Nations Cup competition, which will see the top 12 ranked nations competing for points in each July and November Test window before a weekend of finals, is set to begin in 2026.
Jointly run by Sanzaar and the Six Nations, the aggregation of global broadcast rights for the July and November Tests is expected to see an uplift in broadcast value, which will be shared by the competing nations. Revenue from the finals weekend, set for London in 2026 and likely Qatar in 2028, would also be shared.
Rugby back on Kayo? Free to air still on Channel 9?
Broadcast bucks
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-unio ... 5kyxj.html
Rugby Australia’s broadcast deal with Nine Entertainment/Stan expires at the end of 2025, and the parties are currently in talks about extending for another five-year period, between 2026 and 2030.
RA and Nine (the publisher of this masthead)/Stan are in an “Exclusive Negotiating Period” (ENP) through to December 31. From January 1, Rugby Australia is free to talk to other potential broadcaster partners, but a deal could be struck before the end of the year.
RA chairman Daniel Herbert told this masthead earlier this month there is appeal to the “certainty” of extending with Nine/Stan, but only if “the price is right”. The current deal is worth $30m a year.
“Nine have been a great partner and we have a great relationship, but they got us a number of years ago at the lowest ebb,” Herbert said.
Whether there are other suitors for Rugby Australia’s broadcast offerings – primarily Test and Super Rugby matches – is the multimillion-dollar question. Reports surfaced this month that giant sports streaming company DAZN, backed by British-Ukrainian billionaire Len Blavatnik, is in talks with News Corp about buying Foxtel.
Whether that would translate to competitive tension for RA remains to be seen, but the governing body has made no secret of the need to secure an increase in broadcast revenue for the new five-year cycle.
Rugby Australia had paused contract talks with leading players, including Fraser McReight and Len Ikitau, in the last quarter of this year, waiting to get a picture of its likely broadcast revenue.
While a domestic deal will represent a majority of broadcast revenue, there are other global deals expected to bring in additional monies for RA. The Nations Cup competition, which will see the top 12 ranked nations competing for points in each July and November Test window before a weekend of finals, is set to begin in 2026.
Jointly run by Sanzaar and the Six Nations, the aggregation of global broadcast rights for the July and November Tests is expected to see an uplift in broadcast value, which will be shared by the competing nations. Revenue from the finals weekend, set for London in 2026 and likely Qatar in 2028, would also be shared.
