All NRL games Live: Another kick in the teeth for free-to-air broadcasters

Fox Sports expected to sign deal to show all NRL games live for the first time in history from 2018

Mike King

Mike King is a Fool.com.au Investment Analyst and Writer. He caught the investing bug more than a decade ago, at a time when the U.S. had invaded Iraq and fear reigned in the markets. His initial success as the markets took off encouraged his passion and thirst for knowledge. With 13 years behind him at one of Australia's largest domestic banks, Mike's passion for stocks led him to join a boutique funds management firm, where he stayed for four years. A seven-year stint in equity research at one of the largest investment banks in the world followed that, giving Mike a thirst to pursue his passion further. Mike holds a Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment and a Graduate Certificate in Financial Planning. His passion is to help retail investors invest better, and that passion was one of his primary reasons for joining The Motley Fool Australia in late 2011. Mike has written thousands of articles since joining, including for Fairfax Media, Yahoo!7, Ninemsn and has also appeared on ABC's The Business. You can see all of Mikes' holdings here

Published August 4, 2015 10:08 am AEST

We've written so many times about the coming end for Australia's free-to-air broadcasters, and they've just received another nail in their coffin.

In previous articles we suggested that without sports or news programming, the three free-to-air (FTA) broadcasters, Seven West Media Ltd (ASX: SWM), Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd (ASX: NEC) and Ten Network Holdings Ltd (ASX: TEN) would struggle to retain viewers and as a result, lose advertisers.

The Daily Telegraph is reporting that News Corp (ASX: NWS) has announced that every National Rugby League (NRL) game will be shown live on its Fox Sports channel, in a deal estimated to be worth $1.7 billion. The soon-to-be-announced deal will see broadcast rights from 2018 to 2022 go to Fox Sports. The pay-TV broadcaster already covers all Australian Football League (AFL) games live.

State of Origin will reportedly remain on free-to-air, apparently because it is more valuable than even the NRL Grand Final. Nine will reportedly keep 3 NRL games a week, with Channel 10 possibly getting one game. That appears to be the NRL's wish to get the bigger audience available on free-to-air TV. Only 30% of Australians currently have pay TV (Foxtel).

Essentially, this is just another step towards major sporting events being broadcast by non-FTA channels, be it streaming over the net or via pay TV. I still think that there's not enough room for three broadcasters, and one of them will disappear in the not too distant future.

Despite my dire predictions for the three FTA broadcasters, I could actually see them diversifying so they become much more than just broadcasters. But they will need to do it soon, or struggle for years like News Corp and Fairfax Media Limited (ASX: FXJ) have found with their newspaper businesses.

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