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$4bn footy: Inside the bitter Nine vs DAZN war for rugby league supremacy · The Front

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Monday, June eight, twenty twenty six. A plague on
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  Speaker 1: all your houses. That's the mood from voters. In a
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  Speaker 1: bombshell News poll today which puts One Nation as the
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  Speaker 1: most popular party for the first time as the coalition
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  Speaker 1: languishers and Anthony Albanesi's personal approval rating slumps, sixty one
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  Speaker 1: percent of voters say they believe the same old political
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  Speaker 1: suspects cannot fix the mess they created and Australia's due
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  Speaker 1: for a huge shakeup. Check out those numbers in detail
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  Speaker 1: and what they mean for all the parties and all
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  Speaker 1: of us right now at the Australian dot com dot au.
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  Speaker 1: The hottest competition in Australian media right now is for
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  Speaker 1: the rights to National Rugby League up for grabs at
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  Speaker 1: four billion dollars. But there's a twist with nine about
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  Speaker 1: to splurge big time on English Premier League in a
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  Speaker 1: huge gamble on Australian's love affair with soccer today what
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  Speaker 1: it all means for fans. John Stenzelt is the Australians
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  Speaker 1: Lists editor and he's here today to talk to me
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  Speaker 1: about of all things soccer. Australians have absolutely fallen in
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  Speaker 1: love with what people in the United Kingdom called football,
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  Speaker 1: and I think a big part of that magic is
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  Speaker 1: the huge success of the Apple TV show Ted Lasso.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, well, look, hey, I hate to bring up work
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  Speaker 2: at a moment like this, but we do have a
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  Speaker 2: second half of a match to play. Coach, what we got.
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  Speaker 1: Playing a man down? What'll we do differently, John, Australians
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  Speaker 1: have really fallen in love with soccer. The Premier League
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  Speaker 1: is luring more fans than ever in Australia.
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  Speaker 3: But whatever you do, don't call it soccer.
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  Speaker 2: From the coast to the outback. The Matilda's had Australians
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  Speaker 2: glue to the screen.
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  Speaker 1: Where is a feeling the love in the United States?
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  Speaker 3: With hundreds of Bossie fans packing their training HQ and California.
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  Speaker 1: They're watching it in numbers that I think we probably
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  Speaker 1: couldn't have anticipated a couple of decades ago. What's happening
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  Speaker 1: with the rights to watching the EPL on TV screens
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  Speaker 1: here in Australia. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: English Premier League is actually a really huge subscription driver
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  Speaker 2: for Stan Sport, which is owned by Channel nine. Nine
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  Speaker 2: Entertainment being the listed company. Optus used to have the
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  Speaker 2: rights for it up until the season just gone. It
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  Speaker 2: was a way of driving mobile phone subscriptions for Optus
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  Speaker 2: in a way that's stream it. Now Stan's got it
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  Speaker 2: and it's a way of driving subscriptions for them. So
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  Speaker 2: it's done really really well for Stan in terms of
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  Speaker 2: getting people onto the platform paying that extra twenty bucks
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  Speaker 2: a month for sport. Is a bit of rugby union
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  Speaker 2: on there as well, but really EPL is a big thing.
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  Speaker 2: There's a lot of Liverpool Man United Arsenal fans here
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  Speaker 2: in Australia.
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  Speaker 3: Kickoff can be any time from nine at night to
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  Speaker 3: seven am. The mere fact fans fill out pubs, it's
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  Speaker 3: no matter at the time a testament to how popular
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  Speaker 3: this sport.
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  Speaker 2: Is now nine I've only got the next season that
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  Speaker 2: as part of that Opti steal, but we're told that
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  Speaker 2: they're about to sign a really huge extension to that
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  Speaker 2: deal and there's a lot of implications that will come
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  Speaker 2: of that. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: One of the implications I guess will be how much
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  Speaker 1: money nine has left to do other things that it
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  Speaker 1: wants to spend a lot of money on. One of
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  Speaker 1: those is the National Rugby League. Now, I'm an NRL fan, John,
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  Speaker 1: and I never know which platform my team's games are
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  Speaker 1: going to be on. Is it going to be on Nine,
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  Speaker 1: is it going to be on KO? What is the
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  Speaker 1: state of NROL rights at the moment and what does
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  Speaker 1: this EPL deal potentially mean.
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  Speaker 2: Well, so that the moment you can watch every game
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  Speaker 2: except for the State of Origin and except for the
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  Speaker 2: Grand Final live on KO, right, So that's one thing
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  Speaker 2: you can get it there and Cholle and Nine come
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  Speaker 2: in and have the freeoware rights for a couple of
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  Speaker 2: games a week, usually the Friday night and Sunday AVO.
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  Speaker 2: There's some Thursday games now as well, and they have
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  Speaker 2: the State of Origin exclusively live and the Grand Final.
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  Speaker 2: So those three games for Origin and the Grand five
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  Speaker 2: a massive ratings winn it. So at the moment, the
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  Speaker 2: current deal for Nine and Foxtel's Slash KO to share
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  Speaker 2: the rights. We'll explore it in the next season. But
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  Speaker 2: Uber deal maker Peter Valandies, who's the NRL chairman at
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  Speaker 2: the moment executive chairman in waiting, we suspect with Andrew
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  Speaker 2: Abdo leaving the CEO soon, he's out in the market,
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  Speaker 2: right now and he wants a massive number. He really
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  Speaker 2: wants four billion dollars over five years to trump the
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  Speaker 2: AFL's current deal. Right, that's one thing. He wants to
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  Speaker 2: be bigger than the AFL in financial terms. He wants
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  Speaker 2: it to be bolder and he wants it to be
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  Speaker 2: the biggest deal of all time in him to get
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  Speaker 2: all the glory. But it may well end up being
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  Speaker 2: harder for people like yourself to find where the games
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  Speaker 2: are on it. There's a potential for a big carve
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  Speaker 2: upcoming clique.
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  Speaker 1: There are suggestions that both nine and does own, which
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  Speaker 1: is the owner of Foxtel, want NRL all to themselves. Now,
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  Speaker 1: for rugby league to be a purely subscription product would
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  Speaker 1: be pretty controversial. I think, what do you think is
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  Speaker 1: the likelihood of that? Is Peter Landi's potentially open to
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  Speaker 1: selling it to design in its entirety.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, but there is a free toware permutations to that, right,
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  Speaker 2: there's the anti ciphering laws that the Federal Cup and has,
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  Speaker 2: so certain games have to be offered to free to wear, right,
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  Speaker 2: so clearly State of Origin and the Grand Final being
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  Speaker 2: among that, and there's other sort of wrinkles to that
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  Speaker 2: as well, so what would effectively happen if Design comes
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  Speaker 2: along and pays it all the moment that's looming at
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  Speaker 2: a very big possibility they pay for it all, lockstock
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  Speaker 2: and barrel, right, and then what they have to do
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  Speaker 2: then is on sell some of that to Free to Wear.
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  Speaker 2: Now the question becomes in which freeoware network do they
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  Speaker 2: sell it to. Will it be nine, don't necessarily have
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  Speaker 2: a great relationship with over time, Will it be seven,
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  Speaker 2: who has actually put in a bid for some games,
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  Speaker 2: or will it be Channel ten, which is a bit
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  Speaker 2: of a wildcard. You know, it's not a great rating network,
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  Speaker 2: but like it could almost be used by KO as
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  Speaker 2: a way to sort of wrestle the grip of Rugby
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  Speaker 2: League away from Channel nine, which would be quite amazing.
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  Speaker 2: At the end of the day, it'll be PVL that decides,
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  Speaker 2: you know, whether or not that's going to happen in
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  Speaker 2: a way, but its limbs as a possibility.
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  Speaker 1: We've got a sort of hint of what maybe that
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  Speaker 1: would be like when after State of Origin, just recently,
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  Speaker 1: John we saw Phil Gould, who is one of nine's
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  Speaker 1: marquee commentators also a very powerful player within the game itself,
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  Speaker 1: refused to talk about the most controversial moment in that
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  Speaker 1: State of Origin match, the sending off of Queensland superstar
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  Speaker 1: Kaylen Ponger.
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  Speaker 4: Gus, you're heavily involved in Clubland as well as the players.
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  Speaker 4: Do they see it like that that they have the
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  Speaker 4: responsibilities defenders to make sure that they're looking after whoever
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  Speaker 4: they're tackling. James, I should just you are someone else
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  Speaker 4: may rather than me. If you don't mind, that's all right,
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  Speaker 4: I'm like going to keep your job. We're having an
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  Speaker 4: open discussion about an incident that was out there on
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  Speaker 4: the park.
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  Speaker 1: To know it, to me, that seemed like Phil Gould
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  Speaker 1: humiliating his employers at nine, implying that they had told
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  Speaker 1: him to keep his mouth shut, not to criticize the referees,
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  Speaker 1: not to embarrass the game. What was your reading on
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  Speaker 1: that and what it tells us about what nine cents
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  Speaker 1: is whether it can actually get these rights.
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  Speaker 2: Look, everyone's treating very very carefully and wanting to curry
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  Speaker 2: favor with the Landies at the moment. Clearly right, there's
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  Speaker 2: no doubt. But you know he holds he is the kingmaker,
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  Speaker 2: but at the same time he needs their money, right,
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  Speaker 2: So it goes both ways. Louchelle and Nine have also
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  Speaker 2: expressed interest in taking all the rights as well. Right
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  Speaker 2: and whether or not they can afford that is a
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  Speaker 2: different question. And having free to wear on nine and
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  Speaker 2: a pay television component or a subscription component on stand now.
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  Speaker 2: I think if they're going to pay one hundred million
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  Speaker 2: dollars a year for EPL rights from twenty twenty eight onwards,
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  Speaker 2: which is on the cards, that might make a massive
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  Speaker 2: spend on Rugby League less likely. But maybe there's a
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  Speaker 2: scenario where Design Slash Fox will come in buy it all,
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  Speaker 2: do all the production of all the games, and then
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  Speaker 2: effectively have their products placed on Free to wear in
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  Speaker 2: return for a fee. So you know, maybe that makes
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  Speaker 2: it cheaper for a nine or affordable for a seven
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  Speaker 2: or a ten. So I think we're in this sort
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  Speaker 2: of game one of a three game origin series. On
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  Speaker 2: and off the field, Clayer, this is almost like, you know,
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  Speaker 2: they've cuted the ball up for the first two twenty minutes,
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  Speaker 2: done all the hard yards, and let's say you throws
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  Speaker 2: the ball out wide and scores a few points. There's
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  Speaker 2: a little bit more aort of it to run under
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  Speaker 2: the bridge. Andrew Abdo, who's going to tennis. He's the
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  Speaker 2: CEO of the NRL at the moment. He ends up
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  Speaker 2: middle of July, and he's talked about wanting to have
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  Speaker 2: the deal done by then, so look, it's not too
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  Speaker 2: far away. There's a lot of frantic negotiations going on
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  Speaker 2: in the background, and it'll be very, very fascinating to
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  Speaker 2: see where it all gets carved up. I wouldn't be
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  Speaker 2: surprised if it ends up we end up at the
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  Speaker 2: status quo. But a few interesting sort of ways of
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  Speaker 2: going about that in the background.
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  Speaker 1: What about AFL, John, what's happening in regard to those rights?
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  Speaker 2: They're locked in? So they're locked in for like, you know,
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  Speaker 2: another half decade or sown or Foxtel back in there.
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  Speaker 2: So they paid big money for it, and more than
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  Speaker 2: three billion dollars right, it was the biggest deal in
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  Speaker 2: Australian history. Pretty safe really. I mean Channel seven have
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  Speaker 2: got the free too ak components to that. Again, there's
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  Speaker 2: permutations to that. So at Channel seven with Rugby League
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  Speaker 2: able to buy in at all if they've got the AFL,
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  Speaker 2: probably not, but they might be in state of origin.
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  Speaker 2: I think the question with that is, like, you know
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  Speaker 2: how much, which is a State of Origin and Grand
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  Speaker 2: Final Worth and some other free aware games. It's probably
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  Speaker 2: two hundred million dollars a year. So if that's the case,
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  Speaker 2: I don't necessarily think that Channel seven can afford to
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  Speaker 2: pay something like that for the whole package particuarly when
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  Speaker 2: they've got AFL and AFL is really really important to
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  Speaker 2: them and it has been for a long time now.
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  Speaker 1: When does Own bought Foxtel, there was some speculation that
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  Speaker 1: this would be basically be either the end of Foxtel
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  Speaker 1: will certainly the end of Foxtel's interest in doing anything
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  Speaker 1: real here in Australia. It used to be a joint
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  Speaker 1: venture between news Corp, the ultimate owners of the Australian
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  Speaker 1: and Telstra. Now news Corp globally owns a small share
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: in does Own, the parent company, but does owners always
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: insisted that it is interested in Australia for more than
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: just what it can show of international programming here. What
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: do you think about that long term? Is this sort
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: of the proof that Dozone really does care about this
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  Speaker 1: market and sees it as a somewhere where it can
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  Speaker 1: make a lot of money.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's actually one of the markets where it's profitable
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  Speaker 2: right it's actually makes pretty decent money here, whereas worldwide
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  Speaker 2: it loses billions at times. I mean, it's made deals
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  Speaker 2: with FIFA to show matches from the FIFA World Cup
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  Speaker 2: and your very big bets on that in other sports
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  Speaker 2: as well. But yeah, actually here in Australia it still
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  Speaker 2: makes pretty good money. So from that point of view,
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  Speaker 2: it actually is a pretty decent financial player for design
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  Speaker 2: on a worldwide basis. Look, i mean, obviously, if you're
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  Speaker 2: going to pay more for rights, it's going to be
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: more expensive, and you've seen it in the amount that
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: subscribers have to pay for KO in particular has gone
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  Speaker 2: up in recent times trying to offset some of the costs.
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  Speaker 2: If you look at another way, though, I mean the
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  Speaker 2: question is this, can Design Slash Fox Tell exists in
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: this country without rugby league And I think that's what
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  Speaker 2: the landis is really banking on. They need rugby league
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  Speaker 2: because it is such a good earner for them. It
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  Speaker 2: is so important to the subscribers. It is constant in
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  Speaker 2: good television content for twenty six weeks, twenty eight weeks,
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  Speaker 2: thirty weeks if you include the finals, or pretty much
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  Speaker 2: except for the Grand Final. It is really really good
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  Speaker 2: for them, and it's a big question mark if they
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  Speaker 2: didn't have it.
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  Speaker 1: I would be devastated if anything bad happened to rugby
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  Speaker 1: league at all, John, So I'm realassured to hear that
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  Speaker 1: lots of people still want to keep it alive despite
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: you know, it's usual, it's always facing it. I think
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  Speaker 1: a crisis in terms of participation, certainly as awareness has
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: grown about head knocks and the impact of concussion life long.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: One of the sports that NRAL is very worried about
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: at a participation level is soccer. Do you think having
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: EPL more available in Australia, maybe a little bit cheaper,
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  Speaker 1: would threaten the NRL.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not necessarily. Look, I think the NRL is such
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: a huge television thing, right, I mean, Soccer Paramount and
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: chanl ten have got their rights for the Soccer Roos
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  Speaker 2: and the Matildas and the A League and they pay
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  Speaker 2: a fractionate amount of what rugby league is worth for that.
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  Speaker 2: So I think that just shows you right, Absolutely, the
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: EPL is great from a subscription level, but if you
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: add the EPL in to what the A League and
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: the national team's cost and even what SBS is paying
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: to telecast the World Cup from this Friday onwards. You know,
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: it's still probably half as much as what rugby leagu's
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: capable of getting in the next right, still on an
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  Speaker 2: annual basis, John Stenzel, thank you very much. Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: John Stenzel is editor of the List Australia's Richest two
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: point fifty. You can read his reporting on the fierce
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: battle for the football rights at the Australian dot com
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: dot au