Premiership Rugby racing to strike TV deal with TNT Sports before football auction ends
Broadcasting executives want to secure a discount on the next round of rights
By James Warrington 23 October 2023 ? 6:04pm
Premiership Rugby is racing to strike a TV rights deal with TNT Sports before the Premier League auction ends as the broadcaster pushes for a discount on its next contract.
TNT, which was rebranded from BT Sport earlier this year, has only one more season to run in its three-year domestic deal for Premiership Rugby rights.
But executives want to secure a discount on the next round of rights after three clubs were suspended amid a financial crisis gripping English club rugby.
Advisers have urged Premiership Rugby, which is the top tier of club rugby union, to reach an agreement before the end of a separate auction for Premier League football rights, which kicked off last week.
TNT is expected to bid for at least one of the five packages of football matches, and an industry source said Premiership Rugby could strike a better deal if it wraps up talks quickly.
The insider added that they thought TNT ? then known as BT Sport ? had overpaid for the current three-year rugby contract, which is worth ?110m.
It comes amid a crisis gripping the Premiership, which is now a 10-club competition after three teams dropped out.
London Irish was banished from the league in June after it missed a deadline to pay staff and players and was unable to prove it had the finances to compete in the 2023-24 season.
Wasps and Worcester Warriors were both removed from the league last year.
TNT, which is a joint venture between BT and Warner Bros Discovery, will argue that the dropouts have reduced the value of the TV rights.
The broadcaster had initially considered demanding a rebate, but will instead seek a discount on the next three-year contract.
Tom Harrington at Enders Analysis said: ?Even without taking into account downward pressure on sports rights costs and subscription fees/ad revenues (which makes monetisation harder) and a clear drop in the quality of the competition (with fewer teams), TNT should be in line for a big reduction.?
TNT?s simultaneous talks over football and rugby rights will be overseen by Andrew Georgiou, an experienced broadcasting executive who was promoted to lead Warner Bros Discovery?s media business in the UK and Ireland over the summer.
Mr Georgiou will be tasked with maintaining the channel?s presence in sports rights while trying to trim down costs for Warner Bros Discovery, which is grappling with a debt pile of almost $50bn.
A fall in income from broadcasting rights would come as a further blow to Premiership Rugby clubs, which are struggling to professionalise and create sustainable business models.
The league has been ring-fenced for the last two seasons, meaning there is no threat of relegation for the worst-performing teams.
Sources said this had led to a slump in viewing figures, particularly for matches featuring clubs at the bottom of the league.
The upcoming season will introduce a play-off between the team that finishes bottom of the Premiership and top of the Championship.
Premiership Rugby is also in separate talks with the Rugby Football Union (RFU) to agree terms of a new Professional Game partnership, which is understood to be worth ?128m over the next four years.
TNT Sports and Premiership Rugby declined to comment.
Broadcasters are also going head to head in auctions for top-flight French and Italian football rights.
Italy?s Serie A has sold its TV rights to Sky Italia and sports streaming company DAZN for a combined ?4.5bn, Bloomberg reported.
However, France?s football body has been forced to cancel an auction for Ligue 1 rights after failing to attract any suitable bids.
Topic: PRL racing to try to get TV Deal (Read 1619 times)
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