What do you want in a RA Streaming Service

[qwerty51]

You can do that on the NBA/NFL Game Pass. There's all kind of options, single games, full replays, weekly passes, 1 team only passes etc.

If RA purchased the rights to every pro rugby comp I'd be happy to give them $250/year.

 

[RedsHappy]

It would be great if you could order selected matches (Heiny Cup final) for a one off payment similar to the Fox Main-Event channel for the UFC and Boxing or buy a bundle of games such as 6N.

I'm assuming this would be possible?

Yep. No reason why not. Just needs the billing system to deal with single, discrete purchases vs subs (these are readily available now and not the custom pieces of old) and its interface to the media file server that holds 'the event'. Every game (or series) can be a discrete purchase if ever needed.

 

[RedsHappy]

You can do that on the NBA/NFL Game Pass. There's all kind of options, single games, full replays, weekly passes, 1 team only passes etc.

If RA purchased the rights to every pro rugby comp I'd be happy to give them $250/year.

I reckon many others would too. I estimated elsewhere that, conservatively, the credible target market for this type of 'all-in' rugby streaming product (assuming produced and presented well technically) here would be at the very least 100,0000 subs and at credible charge range of c. $360-$400 pa (rugby demos not hugely price sensitive if product is excellent). c. $30m-$40m pa income line potential pa and you get to control your own product digitally which has huge advantages (noting as I do the poor quality, mediocre mess that is Foxtel's rugby commentariat and general rugby product marketing).

 

[RedsHappy]

You can do that on the NBA/NFL Game Pass. There's all kind of options, single games, full replays, weekly passes, 1 team only passes etc.

If RA purchased the rights to every pro rugby comp I'd be happy to give them $250/year.

Yep, one of the many smart media and marketing mechanisms these codes have used to massively grow global audience reach and, related, gross media income.

 

[Jimmy_Crouch]

Yep, one of the many smart media and marketing mechanisms these codes have used to massively grow global audience reach and, related, gross media income.

Along with things like Madden/2K

 

[Juan Cote]

This is all making way to much sense for RA to ever consider it

 

[RedsHappy]

This is all making way to much sense for RA to ever consider it

One great indirect attribute of DIY media production, DIY digital product marketing etc is that it necessitates that the product rights owner and media producer _constantly thinks about its actual sports consumer market and how to attract and hold it_.

I say this particularly as one of the gravest traps in the traditional 5-year-long, fixed price per year, RA/Foxtel media delivery rights contractual model is that it permits a form of strategically very lazy, market-distancing behaviour and complacency by the original rights owner.

In that the owner's mind set in the fully on sold, outsourced model just becomes 'phew I've flogged the rights off to a 3rd party for a long period, all I have to do is bill the cash every 6 months and not worry too much about what actually gets delivered and whether the quality is adequate and whether the fan connectivity is good and motivating, etc'. In this way the original rights' owner can completely lose touch with its audience, its market, its paying fan base.

There is the trap and the danger, you become totally hostage to A N Other party's calibre in delivering the very essence of your core product, for the good or the bad, and, even worse, if that party does the job poorly you are stuck with them and only them for 5 or so years. If they do a crap job distributing your product there's little really you can do about it bar jump and down with no real teeth to go with the jumping - you the rights owner took the $s and ran, so to speak. You have handed over the soul of your product in media presentation terms, you no longer control it.

Alternatively if you media produce the entire product yourself and deliver it to customers and bill out subs that can be readily cancelled you are innately forced into a totally different and far more direct, two-way, relationship with your target market.

I would suggest that the above is in fact one of many traps RA's management and board have fallen into with its long-running Foxtel engagement model.

 

[D-Box]

Ok time for a hypothetical spanner in our hypothetical streaming service.

Everyone is of the view that this should be the ultimate streaming service with everything on if from my clubs Under 6s through to the World Cup final. The potential spanner is that RA only has the rights to:
Aus Premiere Rugby
Aus Pro Franchise/Club (Dom or TT or Super)
TRC via SAANZAR
Inbound tours

There is no garuntee that they can get all Wallabies tests (remember when FoxSports was outbid by Bien Sports for Nov tests)

While I would think that RA could pick up stuff like Top League and WR (World Rugby) run 7s and Junior, it is likely that they wouldn't be able to afford the rights for 6 Nations, NZ and SA outbound tests or major European Comps without a major initial war chest. If they don't get these comps will people pay enough to make it sustainable. If NewsCorp are after the death of RA to build something in the image they want, buying up those comps would split the "resident in Aussie" dollar and kill RA.

 

[qwerty51]

Just remember, the only content not on Foxsports right now in terms of a local broadcaster is the Six Nations.

Pro14 / Europe Cups are on RugbyPass.
Top 14 strangely is not sold anywhere outside France/Canal.
No one shows the Top League locally either.

Given Foxsports hold the rights to the Premiership, Mitre10, Currie Cup (never shown live), u20s and 7s I see no reason RA can't get those too and then compete against RugbyPass for the Pro14 and get the Top 14 and Top league too. The only tough things would be the Internationals but would Fox even bother with those knowing they've already lost their rugby subscribers?

Just me personally, I'm happy to pay a lot just for club rugby (QLD & NSW), whatever the domestic comp is (and SA and NZ's if they're separate), local Tests, 7s and u20s. The European stuff and Japanese would be a nice bonus. It means something if my money is going directly to RA and not AFL & NRL through Foxtel.