Nine Networks to pay more for National Rugby League broadcasting rights
The Nine Entertainment Chief Executive, David Gyngell, spoke at the lunch for the Canterbury Bulldogs annual Sports, Media and Social Responsibility event and said that Nine Networks will pay more for broadcasting rights for the National Rugby League (NRL)
starting in 2013than what it is paying currently.
The present broadcasting deal will run out by the end of this year for the free-to-air and Pay TV. The new broadcasting deal between Nine Networks and NRL is still under negotiations but is expected to be finalised soon.
Gyngell further added that Pay TV will have to dish out more cash as well if they wish to retain NRL broadcasting rights.
It was further revealed that the final deal between the NRL and Nine networks may not be able to hit $1 billion mark, as the games are not as long as the Australian Football League (AFL). With longer games there is room for more advertisements and a broadcasting
deal can be higher.
While speaking about the AFL that closed their deal with Nine networks at $ 1.2 billion, Gyngell stated, “There are more ads during AFL games, because they have longer games.”
There are a number of reasons why NRL will be unable to beat the broadcast deals which were made earlier this year, between AFL, Telstra, Foxtel and Seven. Amongst the apparent explanations for NRL not bagging enough money is viewership and advertisement
numbers.
Also, the stark difference between the AFL and NRL games is this that unlike NRL, AFL is a national game which adds a lot more to the viewership, despite not being too popular in New Zealand and Queensland. AFL, with its vast viewership, will always be
sold out at a much higher rate with companies such as Telstar because it will be watched across the country.
Coupling the large viewership of the AFL with the lengthier games makes the broadcasting deal more lucrative as opposed to the NRL.
However, it was stressed upon by the CEO of Nine Networks that in order to strike a deal which is at a much higher rate than NRL’s current rates, the viewer ship for NRL games should be improved.
One of the contributing factors to the low rates at broadcasting rights deal with NRL is hidden in its audience numbers which is alarmingly low. According to the records revealed by Goldman Sachs, NRL final games of last year averaged 700,000 urban viewers
in comparison to more than 900,000 viewers per AFL finals game.
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