I imagine this is true but if Fox are essentially paying twice or more the amount channel 9 is, who is the idiot who allows 9 to get the showpiece events live exclusively? That seems like a horrendous business decision to pay heaps more but not get the main money spinners. Am I missing something?
I would say Fox arent willing to pay as much for origin as ch 9 are willing to pay.
Or if you take origin, etc. away from ch 9 then they may not even come to the party in terms of putting in a competitive offer for the rest of the games, and hence your product becomes monopolized on a subscription based service, not ideal... NSWRL probably drag ch 9 along to keep up some sort of competition between the two rights holders, but if one or the other arent getting what they want they could just bail altogether.
If they give everything to Fox then they lose some control on distribution across FTA... ie they would be reliant on Fox onselling to FTA for coverage, but Fox could just give them the shit games so people tune into their exclusive games.
They would also lose a bargaining chip of "exclusivity"... I would say ch 9's share is dropping because they now share all the regular season games with Fox.
Potentially ch 9 were considering only buying origin and the GF, but NSWRL have to give them some benefits on top (preference picking on the TV scheduling) to sweeten the deal and keep a presence on FTA.
I think it's been mentioned in media that NSWRL look to sell origin as a standalone package because it's worth so much money in the TV deals... if Fox are already spending a huge chunk to get what they have, then possibly they just cant justify stumping up more for origin.
Ultimately there could be a whole bunch of factors, but in terms of value it might go something like
1. Origin
2. GF
3. Finals
4. Regular season games (Thurs and Fri likely the highest ratings each week)
