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#Post#: 16403--------------------------------------------------
The CVC factor begins - and ringfencing
DIR By: Blucherquin
Date: February 5, 2019, 11:11 am
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Great stuff if terrifying from Owen Slot today.
Last five mins on twitter:
“Ring-fencing creeping closer, it seems. Following a Premier
clubs board meeting today, the clubs will go to the next step
and seek meeting with the RFU to discuss "most effective
structure for the top end of the game" and "long-term financial
sustainability".
And article today on CVC kicking in with its changes due to its
cash:
A new chief executive will be appointed to run the commercial
arm of Premier Rugby Ltd (PRL) in a move to increase the
financial power of the Premiership rugby clubs.
In December, CVC Capital Partners, the private equity firm, paid
Ł220 million for a 27 per cent shareholding in the commercial
arm of PRL, the umbrella body of the 13 leading rugby clubs —
the 12 teams in the Premiership plus the Championship side
London Irish. PRL is now set to split in half, with CVC taking
control of the commercial arm.
CVC has identified Darren Childs, the chief executive of UKTV,
as the man to run the commercial arm of PRL. CVC will expect to
have its choice given the seal of approval at a meeting of the
13 club chairmen today, but it is a measure of the independence
that CVC has in these matters that the clubs did not know the
identity of the proposed appointment until the news leaked
yesterday.
PRL is run by Mark McCafferty who has been its chief executive
since 2005. With PRL splitting into two bodies, McCafferty will
continue to lead the sporting side but will relinquish control
of the commercial arm to Childs.
Ian Ritchie, the chairman of PRL, is expected to continue in his
role but, like McCafferty, will only control one half of the
organisation. CVC is expected to appoint a separate chairman of
the commercial arm.
Child’s expected appointment, less than two months after the PRL
sale to CVC, shows how quickly CVC intends to get to work with
its new investment.
Childs, a 53-year-old Yorkshireman, previously worked at Star TV
in Asia and Sony Pictures, as well as at BBC Worldwide, the
corporation’s commercial arm. He fits with CVC’s masterplan
because he knows the TV market and is experienced in negotiating
TV rights, which is where CVC expects much of its growth to come
from.
#Post#: 16455--------------------------------------------------
Re: The CVC factor begins - and ringfencing
DIR By: Monte
Date: February 6, 2019, 3:12 am
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Ridiculous decision to my mind and clearly a compromise to
appease hedge fund. They cannot sign a media commercial
agreement without consent from the sport? Very weird.
#Post#: 16457--------------------------------------------------
Re: The CVC factor begins - and ringfencing
DIR By: Blucherquin
Date: February 6, 2019, 3:33 am
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--- Quote from: Monte link ---
>
> Ridiculous decision to my mind and clearly a compromise to
appease hedge fund. They cannot sign a media commercial
agreement without consent from the sport? Very weird.
>
--- End Quote ---
Yes, there were those who said "it's only a 27% stake they
aren't in charge".
Well now they've taken control of the whole commercial
operation.
#Post#: 16458--------------------------------------------------
Re: The CVC factor begins - and ringfencing
DIR By: Boonie
Date: February 6, 2019, 3:35 am
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Problem with making money from TV rights is that you sell to the
highest bidder, which is rarely terrestrial. I know that's
pretty much how it is now, but I am loathe to part with cash for
things like Sky when the only sport I would ever watch is rugby,
and Quins only make up a small proportion of the rugby that is
available.
#Post#: 16460--------------------------------------------------
Re: The CVC factor begins - and ringfencing
DIR By: Rocker
Date: February 6, 2019, 3:40 am
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I have heard from a friend who works there that sky are wary of
paying more out for sports as they don't think it provides
enough added value. I can't imagine therefore that they will
manage to make any, or much, more from TV here.
#Post#: 16462--------------------------------------------------
Re: The CVC factor begins - and ringfencing
DIR By: Blucherquin
Date: February 6, 2019, 3:48 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: Rocker link ---
>
> I have heard from a friend who works there that sky are wary
of paying more out for sports as they don't think it provides
enough added value. I can't imagine therefore that they will
manage to make any, or much, more from TV here.
>
--- End Quote ---
Yeah Sky have finished three years worth of redundancies
designed to make it streamlined for takeover and to pay for the
billion quid current football deal.
BT have realised that giving people sport to get subscribers to
all their services also hasn't worked, hence jacking up prices.
But their main aim is to leverage rights abroad -- in particular
Asia. My bet is it will one day mean kick off times designed for
that market if it takes off and games abroad.
I read that F1 audiences have fallen by something like 140
million because it's no longer available on free-to-air in
pretty much any market. Sky have total rights for 6 years from
this year for example.
#Post#: 16465--------------------------------------------------
Re: The CVC factor begins - and ringfencing
DIR By: TomBuckQuin
Date: February 6, 2019, 4:13 am
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Stupid question: is this going to affect the fans in any way? It
just doesn't worry me at the moment but I'm wondering if I'm
just being naive. So these guys want to sell the Premiership and
market it about the place and get it on TV and bring money into
the game. As opposed to someone else doing that. Sounds like I'm
not even going to notice. Can someone who knows more about this
stuff tell me how it's going to affect me as a Quins fan?
#Post#: 16469--------------------------------------------------
Re: The CVC factor begins - and ringfencing
DIR By: Monte
Date: February 6, 2019, 4:37 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Well Premiership rugby could move to Amazon or Netflix and
European rugby could stay on BT so you could have to buy
multiple subscriptions and the cost of season tickets could go
up as well as CVC will want their pound of flesh. If on multiple
broadcasters timings of matches could be moved to suit the
broadcasters ie weekday or anytime at weekends.
#Post#: 16474--------------------------------------------------
Re: The CVC factor begins - and ringfencing
DIR By: TomBuckQuin
Date: February 6, 2019, 4:49 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: Monte link ---
>
> Well Premiership rugby could move to Amazon or Netflix and
European rugby could stay on BT so you could have to buy
multiple subscriptions and the cost of season tickets could go
up as well as CVC will want their pound of flesh. If on multiple
broadcasters timings of matches could be moved to suit the
broadcasters ie weekday or anytime at weekends.
>
--- End Quote ---
Okay so aside from the fact that I have both Amazon Prime and
Netflix (not one to brag but...) is that really realistic? How
interested are those guys realistically going to be? I work in
TV and hear a lot of the convos between execs here and the
Netflix suits. They're much more interested in bingeable content
- live sport has people's attention for a split second in
relative terms. When you can own the copyright to something like
a 'Stranger Things' that people will continue to sign up to
watch as opposed to something fleeting like a game of rugby it's
a no-brainer, no? How many times do you go onto BT Sport and
watch a game from 3 gameweeks back? I know I don't. Onto the
next one. That's the kind of ephemeral beauty of live sport, but
I can see why Sky and BT have run into difficulties in trying to
make it lucrative.
Surely CVC won't have direct control of season ticket pricing -
that stays with the clubs surely? And yes, it's all linked, but
prices have always gone up - that feels to me like an inevitable
truth whoever's in charge. If we want to see the sport we love
continue to grow then I think we all know we're going to be
paying slightly more year-on-year whether we like it or not.
Doesn't mean we shouldn't continue to lobby the club to keep it
affordable of course. I'm sure freezes will continue to be a
thing according to supply and demand.
I also think it's unlikely rugby games will ever be played in
the middle of the week - everyone wants to watch sport on the
weekends - but maybe that is just me being naive.
#Post#: 16478--------------------------------------------------
Re: The CVC factor begins - and ringfencing
DIR By: Blucherquin
Date: February 6, 2019, 5:14 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: TomBuckQuin link ---
>
> Okay so aside from the fact that I have both Amazon Prime and
Netflix (not one to brag but...) is that really realistic? How
interested are those guys realistically going to be? I work in
TV and hear a lot of the convos between execs here and the
Netflix suits. They're much more interested in bingeable content
- live sport has people's attention for a split second in
relative terms. When you can own the copyright to something like
a 'Stranger Things' that people will continue to sign up to
watch as opposed to something fleeting like a game of rugby it's
a no-brainer, no? How many times do you go onto BT Sport and
watch a game from 3 gameweeks back? I know I don't. Onto the
next one. That's the kind of ephemeral beauty of live sport, but
I can see why Sky and BT have run into difficulties in trying to
make it lucrative.
>
> Surely CVC won't have direct control of season ticket pricing
- that stays with the clubs surely? And yes, it's all linked,
but prices have always gone up - that feels to me like an
inevitable truth whoever's in charge. If we want to see the
sport we love continue to grow then I think we all know we're
going to be paying slightly more year-on-year whether we like it
or not. Doesn't mean we shouldn't continue to lobby the club to
keep it affordable of course. I'm sure freezes will continue to
be a thing according to supply and demand.
>
> I also think it's unlikely rugby games will ever be played in
the middle of the week - everyone wants to watch sport on the
weekends - but maybe that is just me being naive.
>
--- End Quote ---
So that's where I think the negative effect on fans will come.
It's not, for me, about who in the UK gets to broadcast it. It's
about what demands the commercial arm will place on the game in
order to maximise its revenue.
Look at the NFL -- this year there are four games in London and
one in Mexico. There are Thursday night games and Friday night
games on top of the traditional Monday night games.
Wednesday night gets a decent audience in China? Move games to a
Wednesday.
Scrums...slowing the game down and affecting audiences? Scrap
them.
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