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#Post#: 40038--------------------------------------------------
Re: 6 nations to go behind paywall
DIR By: Monte
Date: March 6, 2020, 8:01 am
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Well maybe it can be put on the A list. A joke that Grand
National and not the Gold Cup is on that list but luckily a lot
of racing on ITV.
#Post#: 40041--------------------------------------------------
Re: 6 nations to go behind paywall
DIR By: Fearless Fred
Date: March 6, 2020, 8:41 am
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It amazes me that the RL Challenge Cup final is on the A list,
but the 6 Nations isn't, to be honest.
#Post#: 40055--------------------------------------------------
Re: 6 nations to go behind paywall
DIR By: Hellequin
Date: March 6, 2020, 4:24 pm
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I don't think the 6 Nations would actually be worth that much to
a commercial broadcasting company. Who would actually pay a
decent amount to cover the whole tournament? France Vs Italy
negligible, the Celtic Nations playing each other probably not
great. Only big draw would be Vs England similar to Sky's deal
for the other International matches.
The ideal model for me of it did go commercial would be the F1
model with a dedicated channel covering all of the major events
in detail, including worldwide and feeder series. With in depth
analysis by actual experts not just poetry readings and the same
old commentary every year.
I already watch rugby on BT SPORT and Sky most weeks so wouldn't
make much difference to me.
On Cricket I was a season ticket holder at Middlesex for 2
years. T20 was by far the most popular at the ground, quite
often sell outs and covered on Sky cricket nightly from across
the country. One dayers quiet on weekdays crowded at weekends
and some covered on Sky. Championship matches basically empty
except for members over 70 and school children on a day out,
only included on sky sports news once an hour. Even on the last
day of the season with Middlesex winning the Championship
probably a lower turnout than a League 2 football match.
#Post#: 40190--------------------------------------------------
Re: 6 nations to go behind paywall
DIR By: Monte
Date: March 8, 2020, 9:00 am
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From the Sun Tel 1 match a week free to air what a joke
HTML https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/03/07/private-equity-tries-make-rugby-lucrative-global-game/
#Post#: 40260--------------------------------------------------
Re: 6 nations to go behind paywall
DIR By: DOK
Date: March 8, 2020, 1:30 pm
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Private equity tries to make rugby a lucrative global game
Private equity firm CVC is revolutionising rugby as it seeks to
emulate American football's commercial success
By
Christopher Williams,
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH BUSINESS EDITOR
7 March 2020 • 4:00pm
The coming campaign of breakneck professionalisation is likely
to be dizzying for many of rugby's traditional fans.
When Saracens run out in rugby’s second tier next season, the
north-west London club’s squad of international stars must be
careful not to stumble on a tree root.
At Dillingham Park, Bedfordshire, home to Ampthill RUFC, the
only way to reach the pitch from the spartan clubhouse is to
pick a muddy path through a silver birch wood.
Many more indignities await Saracens following their relegation
by Premiership Rugby for persistent breaches of the top flight’s
player salary cap. The scandal means one of club rugby’s richest
teams will clash with relative paupers such as Ampthill at the
same time as the sport itself is tackling its own troubled
relationship with money.
“We’re really on day one of this journey,” says Darren Childs,
chief executive of Premiership Rugby and the man under pressure
to deliver nothing short of a financial revolution in English
club rugby on behalf of team owners and their new business
partners, the $82bn (£63bn) private equity giant CVC.
“We lost about four months and everything got held up while we
sorted out the salary cap issues,” he adds.
Saracens are resigned to a season of exile and Childs – a
previously casual rugby fan – has received a crash course in the
laws and lore of the sport. Now his real task of converting club
rugby into a slick commercial machine is beginning.
Childs took up his post in June and has surrounded himself with
former colleagues from UKTV. The new team are already preparing
to move the headquarters of Premiership Rugby away from
Twickenham, English rugby’s traditional south-west London
stronghold, and into Covent Garden in the heart of the capital,
closer to the brands they hope to attract as partners and a
short walk from CVC’s offices on the Strand.
“Rugby only went professional in 1995 and we’re a bit behind the
curve,” says Childs
“But we’re in a business where the interest in the product we
create is just growing. The fan base is increasing. There are
300m active rugby fans around the world and the great thing
about technology is that it allows us to start to connect with
them.”
For many of the rugby men who have traditionally run the game
with pride in its arcane structures and amateur spirit, the
coming campaign of breakneck professionalisation is likely to be
dizzying.
“CVC are no doubt going to meet some resistance,” says Simon
Gillham, the British chairman of the French club Brive. “But in
the end money talks and that is what they are offering to the
club owners and the competitions. CVC are incredibly ambitious
for the sport.”
For Premiership Rugby, CVC’s ambitions will mean heavy
investment in almost all aspects of the sport. The private
equity firm has won the confidence of club owners, who sold it a
27pc stake in their competition for £200m, partly through basing
its business plan entirely on new equity funding.
However, there are no plans to deploy the debt trickery often
used by buy-out firms to quickly boost returns, partly because
returns from rugby are so low there is little to borrow against.
CVC-backed rugby bosses are in line for the multi-million-pound
paydays that are standard in private equity if they hit
stretching targets in as soon as three years.
In meetings with club leaders, Nick Clarry, one of the CVC
partners leading the firm’s rugby push has highlighted just how
little the sport makes compared with American football.
Excluding television rights, he tells them, the Premiership
final makes a return of about $3m each year.
Meanwhile the Superbowl throws off in the region of $350m. CVC
accepts that England is not America and the Premiership is not
NFL, but argues that a ratio of nearly 120 times demonstrates
that rugby has plenty of room to grow.
The comparisons with American football run deeper as Childs
attempts to deliver on CVC’s ambitions. The Premiership is
already working on a streaming app for fans outside the UK,
modelled on Game Pass, which allows British NFL fans to watch
live matches for £14.99 per year.
“The old broadcasting model was that you had to have big scale
in markets to sell your product,” says Childs. “But now we can
write a piece of code in Twickenham that can deliver coverage to
someone in Tonga and tap into those superfans.”
On home turf there is no prospect of Premiership Rugby going
direct to consumers in this way, but as it prepares for an
auction of broadcasting rights later this year, Childs is
attempting to improve coverage with more uniform camera angles
and better on-screen graphics that can help newcomers to the
sport more easily understand the action.
He has the power to make such changes. Although CVC only own
27pc of Premiership Rugby, with the majority still controlled by
the clubs, a complex shareholder agreement ensures it has
day-to-day control.
The money it has injected into the clubs cannot be paid out in
dividends by owners – CVC feared triggering a spike in yacht
purchases by owners – and is intended for investment in
stadiums, facilities and academies.
Although CVC had no direct influence, the punishment delivered
to Saracens is also a signal that rugby must not squander its
new riches inflating player salaries. As the sport changes, more
money will arrive from other sources, the investment firm has
assured impatient elements.
The Premiership is wrestling with the idea of abandoning
relegation and promotion – known as “ring-fencing” – effectively
turning teams into NFL-style franchises. The move would reduce
investment risk for team owners, but risks creating “dead
rubber” matches unappealing to fans and broadcasters.
Meanwhile the likes of Ealing Trailfinders, currently in the
second tier and generously funded by the travel entrepreneur
Mike Gooley, would have their dreams of top flight rugby dashed.
Finances already cause tensions between the Premiership and the
second tier, says Ben Ward, director of rugby at Trailfinders.
“Something should be done to stop ring-fencing but also
something should be done about the fairness of the competition
and to help develop sides in this country. The Premiership this
year is not exciting with relegation already decided.”
Gillham of Brive agrees. “For me, the threat of relegation is
really important for the game. You see it on people’s faces at
Brive every week. We have been involved in relegation battles
but I wouldn’t give them up for the world.” The ring-fencing
debate has rumbled in rugby for a decade and is unlikely to be
concluded quickly even under CVC’s influence.
The forthcoming sale of television rights later this year is a
more pressing question. The domestic rights are currently held
by BT Sport, which pays about £40m per year and averages between
150,000 and 200,000 viewers for each match. BT is understood to
be keen to renew its contract.
The broadcaster has proposed a deal in which it would pay
nothing to show one game a week live, and aim to “upsell” fans
to a package with complete coverage, splitting the proceeds with
clubs.
There are few signs of the idea being taken up, although the NFL
is considering a similar arrangement to get a better foothold in
British living rooms. BT sources suspect that their role in
rugby may be under threat as CVC’s plans advance.
Premiership Rugby is only one part of a global investment being
led from London. CVC followed up in November with a £120m deal
for a stake in Pro14, the top flight competition for Irish,
Italian, Scottish, South African and Welsh sides.
The Six Nations competition will be the next domino to fall,
with the private equity firm due to pay the national rugby
authorities £300m for a one-seventh stake. Talks are also under
way with New Zealand and South African club rugby.
It may be more difficult for CVC to take control of France’s Top
14 competition, which has already enjoyed a major infusion of
cash and is paid about £100m a season from the broadcaster
Canal+.
Owning a rugby club became de rigueur for continental
billionaires such as Mohed Altrad of Montpellier and the cement
industry and Hans-Peter Wild, owner of Stade Français and heir
to the Capri-Sun drinks fortune. Top 14 is also structured as an
association, with no company in which CVC could invest.
The firm is nevertheless keen to involve French teams in the
plans through the Champions Cup, the European club competition.
Each of CVC’s investments in rugby must pay their own way, but
the firm is gradually gaining more control over the global game,
potentially allowing it to coordinate the sale of broadcasting
rights to maximise their value. Clarry, alongside fellow partner
Pev Hooper, has spoken in meetings of a dream scenario for CVC
in which the Premiership acts as a “volume” product of weekly
matches through winter to be sold alongside the “value” product
of the Six Nations in spring and autumn internationals.
Sky is understood to be developing ideas along the same lines
for a rugby channel, where it could package up a sport senior
executives have previously viewed as a “total mess” and sell it
to pay-TV customers. Some at BT suspect close ties between CVC
and Sky – who have previously worked together on Formula 1 and
been joint investors in Sky Bet – makes such an outcome likely.
Others are less sure.
“I think there’s the question about whether CVC can effectively
coordinate across all their fragmented interests,” says one
experienced rights executive. “They don’t really have control.
They might have commercial control but what kind of veto rights
do the teams have? And there is clearly a lot of debate about
what is the right approach of free-to-air versus pay-TV.”
One senior broadcasting executive thinks the challenge is more
fundamental. “I’m just not sure the sport is popular enough,” he
says. “You can change the tournaments, make kits nicer, end
relegation and promotion. Is that going to double the audience?
I don’t think so.”
CVC y must also contend with different national structures.
While Premiership players are contracted to clubs and “loaned”
to England, giving CVC influence over the RFU, the Welsh RFU
secures its players on central contracts.
The Six Nations rights are already on the block, delaying CVC’s
investment. Its vision of the future is sharpening a process
that the Clarry believes has been poorly run in the past,
however.
For the first time the BBC and ITV have been prevented from
bidding together, a move designed to force the broadcasters to
pay up to keep the competition free-to-air.
The process has drawn fire from Julian Knight MP, the new
Conservative chairman of the culture select committee, who last
week warned “it’s of huge concern to see there’s a bidding war
that could take the Six Nations behind a paywall” as he demanded
more transparency.
Jonathan Thompson, the chief executive of Digital UK, the
terrestrial broadcaster joint venture that oversees the Freeview
platform, says millions are at risk of being cut off from rugby.
“What free-to-air television is uniquely able to do is unite the
nations in a moment of intensity and common effort,” says
Thompson.
“If the Six Nations were to go behind a paywall, viewing figures
show that around 10m people who currently tune in in of every
corner of the UK would risk being deprived of the chance to join
in.”
CVC is determined to exploit all the rugby rights over which it
has some say to the fullest, however.
Clarry and the other partners in the investment have put up
millions of their own money in a bet that with some bulking up,
rugby’s financial underperformance can be tackled.
#Post#: 40265--------------------------------------------------
Re: 6 nations to go behind paywall
DIR By: Monte
Date: March 8, 2020, 2:11 pm
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Tks DOk didn’t realize it was a problem
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