Moment of truth for rugby’s TV rights

Rugby Australia chairman Cameron Clyne has thrown his support behind CEO Raelene Castle over rumours her job is on the line.

Raelene Castle is the first chief executive of Rugby Australia to put the TV rights out to competitive tender Picture: Nikki Short

The NSWRU and the Sydney Rugby Union on Friday rejected the Fox Sports offer to televise the Shute Shield, leaving the way clear for Rugby Australia boss Raelene Castle to take its broadcast rights to public tender next week.

The Sydney clubs voted unanimously, 19-0, in favour of backing RA’s policy of selling the Australian rugby rights as a package, effectively from clubland to the Wallabies. It all seemed a bit futile given that Fox Sports had indicated a day earlier that it had withdrawn its offer, believing the clubs were turning the process into a “Dutch auction”.

Rugby Australia now claim that, with the exception of a single Shute Shield match that will remain the broadcast property for Club Rugby TV owners Nick Fordham and John Murray until the end of the 2024 season, all rugby rights in this country have been packaged for the first time under Castle.

Club Rugby TV broadcast one game a week but claim they own all TV and digital rights for the Shute Shield.

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The NSWRU, which also jointly owns the Shute Shield and the QRU, which runs the Hospitals Cup in Brisbane, have already rubber-stamped the RA approach.

Fordham said had it not been for Fox Sports’ interest in the Shute Shield, the clubs would have suffered.

“Ever since Fox Sports got involved, RA had to match their offer and better it and that’s a win for Sydney club rugby,” Fordham said.

“So the real winner out of this is the Shute Shield and the SRU.

“The whole reason we got into this was to help Sydney club rugby and the money is now genuinely flowing.”

As for the looming negotiation with Rugby Australia to secure the Shute Shield’s game of the week, Fordham said: “We’re in discussions with Rugby Australia and there are open lines of communication.”

If a sale price is not agreed, the Shute Shield — which kicks off on April 4 — will remain on Seven.

That would mean the SRU having to continue to pay the network an annual $300,000 fee for broadcast and production, and the clubs would miss out on the money they desperately need from RA.

Now comes the heart-in-mouth moment when Castle must pitch her plan to the marketplace and hope that Optus is not the only service provider that responds to her tender application before the deadline expires at the end of March.

Fox Sports, which has been Rugby Australia’s sole broadcast partner since the birth of professional rugby back in 1995, has indicated it has withdrawn from negotiations with Rugby Australia. But that is not to say it cannot rejoin the fray once the tender documents are released, even if it leaves its run to the last moment.

There is little doubt that many rugby followers will cancel their subscriptions the minute Fox Sports loses the rights to the game but with rugby subscriptions already falling at what point does Fox decide enough is enough and keep walking?

Already the rumours are starting to fly. It has been suggested that senior News Corp executives will not negotiate with Rugby Australia while Castle remains chief executive. Certainly RA chairman Cameron Clyne was quick to douse this one. “We don’t know … we’ll wait to see who bids,” Clyne told The Weekend Australian. “There is always a lot of posturing that goes on around these bids.”

It has also been rumoured that if Castle’s tactics misfire, the plan is to replace her with a person who has held a senior administrative position in another major Australian sport. But when approached on Friday, the individual said he had not been approached.

Castle’s worst nightmare would be finding there was no competitive desire for the rugby broadcast rights in the market. She has dressed up her package as attractively as she can, highlighting all the things that rugby couldn’t offer at the last broadcast deal in 2015 — a British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, women’s rugby, the prospect of a national club competition to replace the National Rugby Championship and the Sydney and Brisbane club premierships and all the tribalism they entail — but it is yet to be established whether there is a genuine appetite for it.

It also has to play out how Castle’s determination to build a free-to-air component into the broadcast deal will antagonise potential providers, Fox Sports in particular. It has long been a serious goal of Australian rugby to have the game shown on free-to-air but one wonders whether the issue should be elevated to a “deal-breaker”.

Clyne was quick to praise her on Friday, citing the fact that she was the first RA chief executive to bring all the broadcast rights together and also the first to seriously explore competitive tensions. But that will count for little if Optus emerges as the only bidder.

“Optus won’t step up with a huge price (if that is the case),” said NSWRU chairman Roger Davis. “Why would you, if you’re the only horse in the race. It is messy, very messy, with some really major ramifications down the line.”

Australian rugby remains at the stage where it hopes like crazy that Castle knows what she is doing. It will be the mood in a month’s time that will determine her fate.