One thing is clear, we need new revenue streams. As a sport we have sleepwalked into this deal. Instead of backslapping and exhaling in relief the planning for the next deal needs to start now.
One thing is clear, we need new revenue streams. As a sport we have sleepwalked into this deal. Instead of backslapping and exhaling in relief the planning for the next deal needs to start now.
I could agree with you but then we would both be wrong.
Great commentator, 66 years old now and well paid with ITV.
We need a young voice who can cut their teeth with us if they want to go higher, perfect stepping stone position yet difficult to find a good one.
As earlier Proe has been the pick in my opinion and brings the best out in O`Connor, especially when Barry Mac (who is by no means bad) was missing as the pals act was not played out between and during the action.
I wonder if that guy from the micron video's that covered Saint's games at Knowsley Road is still going, he would be my choice.
BBC sign new deal for the Challenge Cup from 2022-2024. Coming before the confirmation of the Sky SL deal hopefully indicates that the tv contracts are properly split up now, which means that the reported £20m Sky deal is for SL only and not the whole package.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/55314634
The Times today are reporting that BT have had a final offer for the RU Premiership turned down. The existing contract runs until the end of this season and it is reported they made an offer of around £40m per year, which was turned down. If we are now accepting offers half as big as ones RU clubs are turning down that is worrying. The paper suggests Amazon haven't made a bid, so that leads me to think Sky want club RU back, and this ties in with the idea of a Sky Sports Rugby channel which was mooted a while back. But what would it say if this channel had club RU and club RL where Sky had paid double for one over the other despite them probably getting very similar viewing numbers? Have Sky offered a low amount for SL in order to offer big money for club RU? Have we been duped again and taken less than we could have got?
Given the club RU deal ends in May 2021 and the SL deal ends in October 2021 it would have made sense for us to wait and see how the RU deal panned out, and used it as leverage when dealing with whoever out of Sky and BT lost out in the RU deal. If Sky didn't get club RU would they still only offer £20m? And BT are now losing club RU which they were willing to pay £40m a year for, so how much would they have offered us if we'd put our rights out to tender now as opposed to a couple of months ago?
It fits in with the rumour that Sky Sports want a dedicated rugby channel like they have for cricket, formula 1 etc. Amazon are apparently interested as they feel their streaming of the autumn nations cup was a success and they wouldn’t think twice about dropping that sort of money.
It’s worth noting though that they’ve not completely rejected BT, just rejected their offers until BT’s exclusive negotiation period expired. Now BT will have to bid against Sky/Amazon to regain the rights which could push the deal above £50m a year.
Forwards win games. The backs decide by how much.
Telegraph reported that BT are now resigned to walking away after making a final offer, if you believe that. Amazon did the internationals recently but that fits in perfectly with their strategy of getting people to take a sub in the lead up to Xmas (much like buying the two midweek rounds of PL in December) but whether they'd be bothered providing coverage of a whole club season is debatable. Either way, it looks like £40m is the benchmark for those rights, which will be at least £10m above what we will get. If the reports about BT willing to re-invest that £40m into other sports is correct then we have missed the boat, yet again.
And also, what are we getting for in return? Rolling out the same sterile, tired and horribly out of date production adds nothing. Literally nothing for us.
As I've said before does any chairman in their right mind think the Sky production is 'dead cool?' There's people on here who are close to the club; I'd be genuinely interested in whether the powers that be think things like that silly try music, Baz and Tez perpetuating a Norther stereotype and the absolute plane crash of a commentary team are projecting their clubs in the right way. If they do then I give up.
Does any of this surprise you? To a certain extent I can understand why they have jumped at an offer after the season we have had; but we have previously jumped through hoops for the sky contract. I think last time we were told by sky, take it or leave it and if you look elsewhere the offer is rescinded. We just don't seem to have anyone with a long or even mid term plan on where we are going. I have been out of the business world for quite a few years, but 20 years ago we move to 5 year rolling budgets and investment plans. We also had short/mid and long term strategies at what we were aiming for. With this lot you really get the feeling that they are incompetent and out of their depth in running a business and negotiating with others that have a firm business background. Even within the game we have seen statements from Mcmanus and Lenegan that have shown up the inadequacies of the leadership (that's an oxymoron) group.
Last edited by Belgian Saint; 17th December 2020 at 08:35. Reason: added UP
I very much doubt they think it's "dead cool" but I also doubt you'd get them critising it either as it's a case of don't bite the hand that feeds you. The sad thing is that Sky seem to have so much power that no one dares say anything about their •••• poor product or anything else.
Forwards win games. The backs decide by how much.
So how much do the BBC want off us to Televise the CC. Why do the BBC or the RFL never announce how much it has cost for new contracts to be signed. Is it that embarrassing that the RFL would rather have it that the public didn’t know ?.
Wasn't the initial RU Premiership BT deal for absolute megabucks? Tells you something about the current climate if the only offer they can get now is roughly the same as the one RL currently has with Sky.
Are you a SL negotiator;-) The RU deal is nearly double what RL has reportedly been offered.
Its nearly impossible to escape the conclusion that the dullards that run our sport be it Rimmer, Elstone and most of the SL chairmen have the commercial acumen of Terry Ramsden.
I bet our sport is the laughing stock of the SKy boardroom. I suspect the sport has been used as a lab-rat before more ‘serious’ negotiations were due to begin with the ‘kool’ sports.
Choosing Leigh to become the 12th team does not help .
It makes me cringe when I think about what those guys have agreed to. If anyone outside the game had enough interest to know all those details we would be the laughing stock of sport. In work, we used to sponsor local amateur teams for more than they got in those deals.
Rugby league will always be seen as a northern sport in terms of marketing it in the uk and Ireland
Nothing wrong with that there are a lot of chimney pots in the north of England and you can a very successful business with that sort of audience numbers
The RFL need to realise that's the key audience and you need to appeal to that first and foremost and work from there
where league has a real advantage over most sports that it competes with a) it is very exciting to watch , b) it's less stop start and b) compared to other sports it's less complicated to watch and understand (certainly compared to say union or the nfl
The product RL has to offer certainly at club level is superior to nigh on any other team sport out there (and I'm a union man first and foremost), your international game is a bit of a mess compared to union
However that is easily fixed imo, get an ashes series on bbc one on a Saturday afternoon and interest would rocket.
Hopefully the powers that be can get a good deal for all the clubs and for the sport in general if not then they should be the ones being changed not the sport itself