Peter V’landys wants the NRL to have its long-term free-to-air partner locked in by the end of the year, while declaring he will “cop the brickbats” for keeping the COVID discounts afforded to Nine Entertainment Co and Foxtel shrouded in secrecy.
The Australian Rugby League Commission chairman remains bullish about the prospect of competitive tension in the race for the free-to-air rights, which expire at the end of the 2022 season.
V’landys and NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo want the code’s broadcast fate to be decided later this year given the volatile worldwide sports rights market.
V’landys used the NRL’s season launch to claim “there are a few options” in the free-to-air space after a ruthless renegotiation with outgoing Nine chief executive Hugh Marks during last year’s COVID-enforced season shut down. Nine is the publisher of this masthead.
The NRL will want the likes of Seven West Media and Ten to express an interest in the rugby league rights, which have been a longtime staple of Nine’s programming.
“They are genuine options,” V’landys said. “We hedged our bets by doing a long-term deal with Fox, who supplied two-thirds of our broadcast revenue.
‘Broadcast is an unpredictable beast. You don’t know what is around the corner.’
Peter V’landys
“The free-to-air channel is one-third of our revenue, but where they are important for us is the eyeballs. That’s where Nine is very good. It’s a powerhouse and we just hope we can come to some arrangement.
“[But] broadcast is an unpredictable beast. You don’t know what is around the corner and you’re seeing sports around the world taking substantially less, and that’s why we covered ourselves with two-thirds of our revenue.
“The important thing people forget is our broadcasters provide all the production which is worth about $50 million.”
But what V’landys was a little more coy on was the deals he cut with Marks and Foxtel boss Patrick Delany after intense renegotiation of their existing contracts last year.
The NRL wants to secure its free-to-air broadcast partner from 2023 by the end of the year.Credit: Getty
Nine forecast it would save $27.5 million in each of the 2021 and 2022 financial years under revised agreements, but the entire discount was hidden from public view when the NRL released its annual report last week.
There is still uncertainty about how much Foxtel paid to for its five-year extension from 2023, which was announced on the same night the NRL resumed after its COVID break last year.
Asked about the lack of clarity over the NRL’s current and future TV income, V’landys said: “A lot of the figures [reported] are completely inaccurate.
“What people haven’t taken into account is we played 20 per cent less games [last year], we didn’t play a Test match and didn’t play the Pacific nations games. And the discount we gave was less than that. I’m very happy with the deal we did given the less product we provided. That’s what everyone forgets.
“I’ll tell you who did better [out of the NRL and AFL] over three years because let’s just see how their accounts are next year. I pride myself on commercial in confidence, I pride myself on when you do a deal you look after your partners to keep the commercial sensitivity to it. I’ll cop the brickbats if I need to.”
V’landys said he has agreed to meet “sooner rather than later” with newly-appointed Nine boss Mike Sneesby, who beat other senior Nine executives to be Marks’ successor. Sneesby has been the chief executive of Nine’s streaming service Stan.
The introduction of six-again calls for ruck infringements last year was designed to appease broadcasters frustrated with the on-field product, a move which the NRL has doubled down on this year. It will also be used for offside offences while there will be a reduction in scrums to help speed up the game.