Seven keen to tackle NRL rights

Original article by Leo Shanahan
The Australian – Page: 23 : 28-Oct-19

Seven West Media has expressed interest in bidding for the National Rugby League’s broadcasting rights when the Nine Network’s current deal expires in 2022. CEO James Warburton adds that Seven may look at gaining the State of Origin broadcasting rights if it cannot secure the full NRL rights. The proposed move on NRL rights is believed to be aimed at boosting Seven’s audience share in Sydney and Brisbane, where its average audience for Australian Football League matches is much lower than Nine’s NRL coverage.

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SEVEN WEST MEDIA LIMITED – ASX SWM, SEVEN NETWORK LIMITED, NATIONAL RUGBY LEAGUE, AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE, NINE NETWORK AUSTRALIA LIMITED, NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, OZTAM PTY LTD, NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, TELSTRA CORPORATION LIMITED – ASX TLS

Racing industry punting on renewed interest with The Everest

Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 18-Oct-19

New research from Roy Morgan shows that just over 5.2 million Australians aged 14+ (25%) now watch horse racing on TV, a drop of nearly 700,000 since 2015. Almost 5.1 million Australians watch the Melbourne Cup race broadcast, and 98% of Australians who watch any type of horse racing on TV watch the Melbourne Cup. The addition of Australia’s richest turf race, The Everest, to the racing calendar in 2017 has attracted a significant audience (over 750,000), but has yet to reverse the overall decline in TV viewership. Analysis shows that a third of Australians who still watch horse racing on TV are aged 65+, and less than a fifth are under 35. The gender split is fairly even, although men slightly outnumber women. These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey, derived from in-depth face-to-face interviews with over 50,000 Australians each year in their homes.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Giant loss nets Seven worst grand final rating in 18 years

Original article by Zoe Samios
The Australian – Page: 23 & 25 : 30-Sep-19

Data from OzTAM shows that the Seven Network’s broadcast of the 2019 AFL Grand Final boasted a metropolitan audience of 2.197 million viewers, compared with 2.601 million in 2018. The nationwide audience fell from 3.378 million in 2018 to just 2.939 million. Richmond’s 89-point victory over the Greater Western Sydney Giants was the third-biggest winning margin in AFL/VFL history.

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AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE, RICHMOND FOOTBALL CLUB, GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY FOOTBALL CLUB, SEVEN NETWORK LIMITED, SEVEN WEST MEDIA LIMITED – ASX SWM, OZTAM PTY LTD, STREEM PTY LTD, NATIONAL RUGBY LEAGUE, NINE NETWORK AUSTRALIA LIMITED, FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD

Cups run over for sought-after sports stream

Original article by Leo Shanahan
The Australian – Page: 23 : 2-Sep-19

Kayo Sports CEO Julian Ogrin has downplayed concerns that the sports streaming service could cannibalise the subscriber base of parent company Foxtel. He says Kayo Sports is primarily targeting Australians who do not subscribe to Foxtel at present. Kayo boasted 382,000 subscribers at the end of June, including 331,000 paying customers, and Ogrin notes that subscribers viewed some 25 million hours of sports content on Kayo in the June quarter. Football fans viewed an average of 3.5 hours of content on Kayo during the period.

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KAYO SPORTS, FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, FOX SPORTS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE, NATIONAL RUGBY LEAGUE, NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, WALT DISNEY COMPANY, DISNEY+, ESPN INCORPORATED

Why networks still bet billions on football

Original article by Zoe Samios
The Australian – Page: 23 : 26-Aug-19

Australia’s commercial TV networks have claimed that the sports broadcasting model is ‘broken’, but their latest financial results suggest otherwise. Seven has indicated that audiences for its coverage of AFL matches are 10 per cent higher than in 2018, and Nine says its NRL revenue has increased by one per cent over the last year. However, data from OzTAM shows that the audience for Nine’s NRL coverage has fallen 3.7 per cent year-on-year so far in 2019. The combined NRL audience share of Nine and Foxtel has also fallen in 2019.

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SEVEN WEST MEDIA LIMITED – ASX SWM, SEVEN NETWORK LIMITED, NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, NINE NETWORK AUSTRALIA LIMITED, FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE, NATIONAL RUGBY LEAGUE, VIZEUM, OZTAM PTY LTD, ATOMIC 212

NBL season on a roll in joint TV rights deal

Original article by John Stensholt
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 19 : 31-Jul-19

The National Basketball League has struck a broadcasting rights deal with ESPN and public broadcaster SBS, which will replace Fox Sports and the Nine Network as its broadcast partners. However, the NBL will receive a share of the TV networks’ advertising revenue in lieu of a broadcasting rights fee. The two-year deal provides for 67 NBL matches to be shown on the SBS Viceland channel, while live streams of every match in the NBL season will be available via the SBS-on-demand service.

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NATIONAL BASKETBALL LEAGUE, ESPN SPORTS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, ESPN INCORPORATED, SPECIAL BROADCASTING SERVICE (SBS), FOX SPORTS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, NINE NETWORK AUSTRALIA LIMITED, NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION, BASKETBALL AUSTRALIA

Giving networks a sporting chance

Original article by Zoe Samios
The Australian – Page: 26 : 15-Jul-19

The Seven Network’s coverage of Wimbledon attracted an average audience of 205,000 per match on its 7Two secondary channel, with the audience peaking at 455,000 for the match in which Ash Barty’s was eliminated from the tournament. That match also attracted 207,000 viewers on Foxtel. The men’s Cricket World Cup has also been a ratings success for the Nine Network and Foxtel, particularly matches featuring the Australian team. Nevertheless, TV industry executives say the weak advertising market and the cost of sports broadcasting rights are a concern.

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SEVEN NETWORK LIMITED, SEVEN WEST MEDIA LIMITED – ASX SWM, NINE NETWORK AUSTRALIA LIMITED, NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, FOX SPORTS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, INTERNATIONAL CRICKET COUNCIL

Twitter wants to partner with TV on sports rights

Original article by Max Mason
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 22 : 7-Jun-19

Twitter executive Kay Madati says the social media platform does not want to compete with TV networks for the right to broadcast sports. Instead, Madati says Twitter wants to act as a partner with them to help increase their audience and generate more revenue. SBS has partnered with Twitter to help promote the public broadcaster’s telecast of the 2019 Women’s World Cup. SBS will have a live daily show on Twitter during the event, along with interviews and highlights.

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TWITTER INCORPORATED, SPECIAL BROADCASTING SERVICE (SBS), NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, AMAZON.COM INCORPORATED, SEVEN NETWORK LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, TEN NETWORK HOLDINGS LIMITED

Facebook, Google unlikely to steal TV sport: Marks

Original article by Max Mason
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 16 : 6-Jun-19

There is speculation that digital platforms such as Facebook could bid for exclusive broadcasting rights to key sports when existing deals expire. However, Nine Entertainment Company CEO Hugh Marks says digital players are unlikely to seek exclusive rights to sports such as the Australian Football League and the National Rugby League in the near-term. Broadcasting right for both codes expire in 2022.

CORPORATES
NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, TWITTER INCORPORATED, AMAZON.COM INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE, NATIONAL RUGBY LEAGUE, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

Ten pins hopes on Rugby World Cup

Original article by Zoe Samios
The Australian – Page: Online : 11-Mar-19

Network Ten has secured the free-to-air and digital rights to the 2019 Rugby World Cup, which will be held in Japan from 20 September to 2 November. The final will be held on the same day as Derby Day during the Melbourne Cup carnival. Ten CEO Paul Anderson says the Rugby World Cup will be the biggest sporting event in the world in 2019, while he has declined to state how much Ten paid for the rights. Ten’s deal gives it the rights to 10 World Cup matches across linear television and broadcast video on demand, including all games featuring Australia

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TEN NETWORK HOLDINGS LIMITED, FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD