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The billion-dollar NRL v AFL war gets brutal in Perth · The Front

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  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 nine, twenty twenty five. Former Prime Minister
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  Speaker 1: Scott Morrison leads a list of Australians tapped for King's
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  Speaker 1: Birthday honors, which also includes filmmaking duo Baz Luhrman and
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  Speaker 1: Katherine Martin, and author jmcurtsey. You can check out the
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  Speaker 1: full list at the Australian dot com AU. Today inside
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  Speaker 1: the country's most intriguing media story, a walloping NRL versus
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  Speaker 1: AFL feud that's centered on a new battleground. Perth. Western
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  Speaker 1: Australia is resolute AFL territory. So why on Earth is
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  Speaker 1: rugby league bringing a superstar coach and a whole lot
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  Speaker 1: of taxpayers money to the West. That's today's story, Football,
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  Speaker 1: money and media. It's a combination guarantee to produce drama.
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  Speaker 1: Ted Lasso, Let's pretend this is Ted Lasso Season four.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so hey, why don't we just jump right in?
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  Speaker 2: Anybody got any questions?
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  Speaker 1: Perth twenty twenty five, the launch of a new rugby
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  Speaker 1: league team deep in AFL territory. We've got an angry
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  Speaker 1: billionaire hostile hometown press pack, an all powerful sporting titan,
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  Speaker 1: a trouble making Tyrow CEO and a legendary coach on
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  Speaker 1: massive money.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a fucking joke.
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  Speaker 1: The Perth Bears have launched with triumph and fanfare if
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  Speaker 1: you're the NRL and crickets. If you're the population of
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  Speaker 1: Perth who are busily enjoying the usual sun kissed winter
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  Speaker 1: ritual of Ossie rules, glory.
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  Speaker 3: You good thing. Heys kicked.
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  Speaker 1: Don't get around the way from.
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  Speaker 3: Everywhere Hudson walk on. I think he's what This game
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  Speaker 3: of footing.
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  Speaker 1: For the same crimes expand is a thing sporting codes
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  Speaker 1: like to try, and Rugby League has tried this before
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  Speaker 1: with the Adelaide Rams. They lasted two seasons and multiple
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  Speaker 1: iterations of a Perth team, but the people of the
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  Speaker 1: West have remained stubbornly indifferent.
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  Speaker 3: The more teams you have, that's how you get the
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  Speaker 3: biggest broadcast deal. More teams equals more games equals more
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  Speaker 3: time slots equals more money.
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  Speaker 1: Steve Jackson writes The Australian's Media Diary.
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  Speaker 3: So Peter Velandi's very savvy media player. He knows this
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  Speaker 3: is how he gets the best deal Perth P and
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  Speaker 3: G and then the next plan will probably be a
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  Speaker 3: second New Zealand team. Now they're not targeting where they
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  Speaker 3: think the best fan bases are or where they might
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  Speaker 3: actually develop the game. What it's about is timeslots. So
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  Speaker 3: they want a team in Perth, that's another time zone.
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  Speaker 3: They want a second team in New Zealand because then
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  Speaker 3: they can have a dedicated New Zealand game every week
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  Speaker 3: that's another time zone. So it's a really strategic play
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  Speaker 3: to ensure that they can get the most money for
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  Speaker 3: their sports rights.
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  Speaker 1: NRL boss Peter Valandi's, who also runs Racing New South Wales,
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  Speaker 1: is one of the most influential figures in sport politics
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  Speaker 1: and media thanks to his control of the vast budgets,
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  Speaker 1: partnership rights revenues and advertising spends of both those sports.
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  Speaker 1: One media organization he hasn't been able to charm is
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  Speaker 1: seven West, which also owns the West Australian newspaper. Well,
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  Speaker 1: I think the media coverage has been a bit biased
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  Speaker 1: in the sense that the main newspaper here is owned
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  Speaker 1: by seven West.
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  Speaker 2: Media that has the AFL rights. Where's we be quite
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  Speaker 2: frank so that they don't want us to be here
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  Speaker 2: because they realize we're going to be competitive and we're
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  Speaker 2: going to take some of their lunch and we eat
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  Speaker 2: a lot.
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  Speaker 1: The NRL has a two billion dollar broadcast deal that
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  Speaker 1: runs through to the end of twenty twenty seven with
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  Speaker 1: nine Entertainment and Foxtel, which shows games on its ko Play.
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  Speaker 1: If everything goes to plan, the Perth Bears will start
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  Speaker 1: playing in either twenty twenty seven or twenty twenty eight,
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  Speaker 1: just in time for Valandies to try and get that
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  Speaker 1: two billion dollar deal up to three billion for the
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  Speaker 1: next five years. The AFL's broadcast deal is with seven
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  Speaker 1: West Media and its owner Kerry Stokes, a mining billionaire
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  Speaker 1: who absolutely loves Aussie rules. Usually when seven covers league,
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  Speaker 1: it tends to be brief and grudging. Indeed, Seven has
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  Speaker 1: devoted very slim coverage to the launch of the Bears,
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  Speaker 1: including Friday's public debut of their new coach, a genuine
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  Speaker 1: superstar of rugby league, Malmoninger.
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  Speaker 2: I feel very honored, very nervous. I think it's a
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  Speaker 2: huge responsibility, but I believe I'm up for it.
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  Speaker 1: The Perth Bears new CEO, Anthony de Segli, is a
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  Speaker 1: former newspaper editor and seven News director.
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  Speaker 2: We've gone from one bear and me to two bears
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  Speaker 2: in melt Bear.
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  Speaker 1: Here's where it gets interesting. Desegli is a protege of
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  Speaker 1: seven West Media owner Kerry Stokes. Peter Vilandi's might have
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  Speaker 1: thought hiring a Stokes loyalist to run the game in
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  Speaker 1: WA would help with media relationships. So far, that hasn't
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  Speaker 1: worked out. The local paper, The West Australian, which is
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  Speaker 1: also owned by Kerry Stokes, has taken to calling the
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  Speaker 1: team the bad News Bears.
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  Speaker 3: Basically, that's seven West Media doing the exact opposite of
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  Speaker 3: rolling out the welcome Matt. They're saying, this is our turf,
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  Speaker 3: we don't want you here, We're not going to support you.
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  Speaker 1: Look.
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  Speaker 3: The West Australian is edited by Christopher dre who's made
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  Speaker 3: it very clear he doesn't think that Perth people are
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  Speaker 3: interested in rugby league and he doesn't think they should
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  Speaker 3: be paying for it through their taxes.
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  Speaker 1: Here's Deceegli again.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think The West Australian is doing
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  Speaker 2: what all tabloid newspapers should do right, which is create
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  Speaker 2: provocative front pages that get people talking. At the end
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  Speaker 2: of the day, it'll be up to the PERF bears
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  Speaker 2: to earn the respect of the daily newspaper and earn
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  Speaker 2: the respect of the sports pages, so that the PERF
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  Speaker 2: bears you deserve to be alongside the coverage of the
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  Speaker 2: AFL teams. And if we're a success on the field,
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  Speaker 2: and if we're a success off the field, then we
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  Speaker 2: should be in those sports pages. And if we're not,
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  Speaker 2: the only people missing out will be the readers of
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  Speaker 2: the newspaper.
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  Speaker 1: It's a sensational media feud.
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  Speaker 3: It's probably one of the biggest media storms we've seen
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  Speaker 3: it in a long time. We've got De Segli, who
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  Speaker 3: was quite popular when he was running the West Australian,
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  Speaker 3: came into the TV division and look, some people have
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  Speaker 3: described his job there as a suicide mission. He came in,
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  Speaker 3: he made a lot of cuts, he lost a lot
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  Speaker 3: of friends very quickly, and now he's gone somewhere where
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  Speaker 3: he's basically the enemy of the network and all those
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  Speaker 3: rivals he's created along the way, this is their chance
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  Speaker 3: how to get square. Of course, a lot of his
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  Speaker 3: decisions at seven were extremely unpopular. He introduced to Friday
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  Speaker 3: Night funny Man, to the serious news bulletin. He trumped
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  Speaker 3: that even by then bringing in a psychic to appear
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  Speaker 3: on the news each night, and so we're seeing him
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  Speaker 3: be ridiculed by the people that he put off side,
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  Speaker 3: but also basically told we're not going to support you. Now,
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  Speaker 3: how much of that is because seven owns the AFL
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  Speaker 3: rights and doesn't want to support the NRL the rival code,
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  Speaker 3: and how much of that is people looking to get
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  Speaker 3: square with Dicegee on a personal basis. We're going to
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  Speaker 3: see that unfold over the coming months.
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  Speaker 1: You're reporting in the Media Diary today that your sources
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  Speaker 1: at seven are telling you that before Decegely went to
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  Speaker 1: the Bears, he was very enthusiastic about rugby league coverage.
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  Speaker 1: What was that all about?
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  Speaker 3: They have said in at seven that he got increasingly
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  Speaker 3: passionate about rugby league in his last few months there.
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  Speaker 3: Of course, the other school of thought is that Decegely
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  Speaker 3: realized that in cities like Sydney and Brisbane you need
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  Speaker 3: to pume up your rugby league coverage in the news
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  Speaker 3: bulletins if you want to have a chance of winning
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  Speaker 3: the ratings.
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  Speaker 1: We've both worked with Anthony de Sigli over the years.
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  Speaker 1: The media is actually quite a small industry. In Australia.
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  Speaker 1: He's a very smart guy, he's very ambitious and he
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  Speaker 1: obviously understands the media very well.
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  Speaker 3: Do you think it.
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  Speaker 1: Matters for the success of the Perth Bears whether or
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  Speaker 1: not they get positive or any coverage from the West
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  Speaker 1: Australian and seven News.
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  Speaker 3: The thing about television news in my experience is they
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  Speaker 3: go with what rates. So while some media outlets might
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  Speaker 3: have a hit list of people who aren't to be
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  Speaker 3: mentioned or topics that can't be shown, when it comes
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  Speaker 3: to television ratings are it and so if the NRL
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  Speaker 3: is going to rate in Perth, they will put it on,
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  Speaker 3: they'll cover it. If it's not going to rate, you
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  Speaker 3: won't see a lick of it. And at the moment
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  Speaker 3: they don't think it's going to be rating, so they're
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  Speaker 3: not going to show it. Will it make any difference?
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  Speaker 3: I think it will because more fans follow usport when
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  Speaker 3: there's on television, but also they get more time on
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  Speaker 3: television once they become more popular and have more fans.
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  Speaker 3: The question is will it win a fan base? Well,
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  Speaker 3: all we know for sure is that they're not going
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  Speaker 3: to get any help in that task.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up. Is anyone going to pay three billion dollars
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  Speaker 1: for the National Rugby League broadcast rights and if so
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  Speaker 1: who A bit of Landy's big experiment was taking NRL
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  Speaker 1: to Las Vegas. He said at the time that the
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  Speaker 1: part of the idea was to develop an American fan
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  Speaker 1: base for the game. Clearly that's not going to happen,
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  Speaker 1: but it has generated pretty great ratings for the broadcast
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  Speaker 1: partners here in Australia and Australian Rugby League fans going
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  Speaker 1: over to Las Vegas to have a holiday and watch
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  Speaker 1: the games. The current NRL rights deal is going to
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  Speaker 1: expire at the end of twenty twenty seven, and Velandi's
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  Speaker 1: has said he wants to get three billion dollars. How
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  Speaker 1: is he actual they're going to achieve that.
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  Speaker 3: Look, he's probably going to have to divide and conquer.
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  Speaker 3: No one's going to own all the rights to all
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  Speaker 3: the games the week in week out NRL games. You're
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  Speaker 3: probably going to see them go to the Zone, which
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  Speaker 3: is obviously invested in Australia and bought Foxtel and Fox
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  Speaker 3: Sports because they want those rights. You're going to see
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  Speaker 3: a free to air provider be bidding. It's most likely
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  Speaker 3: going to be nine seven is indicated they're not interested
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  Speaker 3: in the weekly games. They might be interested in one
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  Speaker 3: state of origin, but the way he's going to do it,
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  Speaker 3: divide up the regular season, maybe sell off the final
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  Speaker 3: series as a separate entity, and then the state of
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  Speaker 3: origin games they'll definitely go to another bidder. What he
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  Speaker 3: wants to target is Amazon, Netflix stand Sport, which is
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  Speaker 3: building up it's sporting showcase. We know that Sports sells
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  Speaker 3: Sport Drive subscriptions, so these are the big international entities
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  Speaker 3: he needs to attract if he's going to maximize the
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  Speaker 3: amount of money he's going to get for the rights.
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  Speaker 3: Because it's no longer just the domestic television network works
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  Speaker 3: who are going to raise the price. He needs the
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  Speaker 3: international streamers.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Steve Jackson writes The Australian's Media Diary, it's live now
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: on our app and our website. Our subscribers get all
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: the scoops from media to sport and everything in between,
• 11:23
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• 11:26
  Speaker 1: week for the first four weeks. Join us at the
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot au