This week we saw and interesting court case in which Optus were ruled to not be breaking any laws by allowing its customers to record free to air television programs on a personal DVR and then stream that recording to their mobile devices and computers as early as 2 minutes after that television program started.
This become an issue for Telstra, as they see Optus allowing near live streaming content of programs Telstra has payed exclusive rights for, namely the NRL and AFL. Tesltra paid a lot of money for exclusive rights to stream live games online for both competitions and basically they felt as though Optus had found a loop hole to get around those very expensive rights deals.
Personally I don’t think they will have any real impact on exclusive online rights for any sport. However for me, it opens up the debate on sports coverage online.
Right now Telstra has the exclusive online rights for the NRL. They also own 50% of Foxtel. It doesn’t make sense for Telstra to under mine its Pay TV arm by allowing online coverage of the NRL to gather any momentum.
Why would Telstra make it cheap enough and easy enough for NRL fans to watch games on their computers, and have their own service in direct competition with its Pay Television company?
So as long as Telstra has the exclusive rights to NRL coverage online, their policies will not only be restrictive, but so expensive to buy as a fan that you might as well….thats right….get Foxtel put on.
So what does “Exclusive” mean?
Once upon a time if you had “Exclusive” rights to a sporting event, it meant that your television station was the only place you could see the game. Things have changed though. We now live in a world where exclusive media content, as soon as it see’s the light of day, it gets sent all over the world on so many formats and to so many different devices that it’s really impossible to have an “Exclusive” of any sort right now.
Telstra want’s to keep exclusivity over online NRL coverage, and that’s fair enough. However, their interests in other areas means that the online coverage they provide is terrible. Really what Telstra pays for in regards to exclusive online rights is really just a safeguard for their Pay TV coverage of the game.
Look at it this way….
Why would I go out and get Foxtel so I can watch NRL coverage bundled with a hundred other channels filled with rubbish if I was able to watch NRL games online for cheaper than Foxtel costs because I’m not playing for all that extra rubbish I don’t watch anyway?
I would happily pay $30 a month if it meant I could watch NRL games online and live. I’m sure many other people would as well. Telstra can’t have that though. They need us all to head on over and become Foxtel subscribers.
The Pay Television industry has a major problem heading its way. In Australia, Pay TV has not had the penetration isn’t Australian homes that it really needs. It has managed to do well so far anyway. However with the National Broadband Network coming into play, people will find they will be able to watch television shows in high definition from web sites from all over the world.
In many cases, you’ll be able to watch your favorite television shows for free over your super fast high speed internet.
Free To Air TV is available to anyone with a television, but Pay TV need’s hardware and a very big infrastructure to run it. The National Broadband Network cuts out the need for that hardware and infrastructure.
Now there needs to be no middle man (Pay TV) between you and your favorite shows. So why would you get Pay TV when you can just get hooked up to the NBN and watch what you want, when you want?
Pay TV will find itself stuck in a no mans land between Free To Air TV and the Internet. The only trump card that Pay TV in Australia will be able to sell you over both is that it can allow you to watch EVERY game of the NRL season if you sign up.
All of this is going to mean that Rugby League fans get severely short change with coverage of the game online unless there is a radical rethink of the way the NRL receives money for coverage of the game online.
Ideally what you would like to see is a completely open and unrestricted site, run by the NRL, which would allow you to subscribe to various packages and watch games online at a price that was reasonable.
Imagine being able to pay to watch an NRL game online and having the ability to pick and chose only the games you wanted to watch. You might pay to only watch games you team was involved in. You might chose to only watch Sunday night games.
You could pay on a month to month basis or pay for an entire years worth of live NRL coverage you could watch online.
Does the money from these subscriptions have to be the finite number in which success or failure is measured? I don’t think so….
Why couldn’t the NRL sell on advertising banners on this online television network. Surely the NRL could commission a study into the exposure existing club and competition sponsors gain from much more open online coverage. If you find that you are getting 10,000 subscribers to online NRL matches, who knows, you much find sponsors will start paying clubs and players more money for that extra exposure.
The NBA has an interesting outlook on this. Their philosophy is to get the game out there. Get as much exposure as possible. If you can get your games shown out in the big wide world as much as possible, sponsors will pay more money to be exposed to the large market you have drawn in.
The NBA has a deal with YouTube that allows anyone to upload NBA clips. Basically the NBA knows that every NBA clip on YouTube might not quite generate direct money into the NBA’s pockets, but the flow on effect and exposure will mean they will down the track get more money from their sponsors.
I think this is the direction the NRL needs to start looking in because it is obvious after this court ruling that the old, out dates idea of exclusive coverage and shutting down an entire side of your potential market is about to become a thing of the past.
Through my web site I am constantly asked by people all over the world where they can watch NRL coverage online. Unfortunately, right now, your best source of NRL coverage online come from pirate streams.
This doesn’t need to be the case.
I’ve no doubt that the NRL will look to sign an exclusive online rights deal with Telstra once again. I don’t think the NRL see’s the potential the internet can offer the game, and I also think that a non exclusive deal would see Foxtel try to drive down how much they pay for Pay TV rights anyway.
However, over the nest five years of the next television deal, the NRL needs to put in the time, money and effort to come out the other side ready to offer fans all over the world coverage via the internet that cuts out the middle man.
Restricting the exposure of the NRL is no longer good enough. The more people watching the game, the better.
Lets hope someone within the NRL see’s the opportunities the new media market holds for the game. When your showing games online, your market isn’t just Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne. Its the world.
