The Silver Fern

yeah, its not as simple as they own the club, they own a share in the this organisation that has a licence to play...but not sure how many actual assets the Highlanders have, new/better sponsors seems to be the main thing these guys can influence

@bayimports yeah, had seen Paramount+ advertised independently more just the disappointment when you see something listed on prime and it has the little yellow symbol in the corner meaning i need yet another service

i find these announcements a bit "meh"...just because its not like theyre investing in the club in the same way one might a english football team, the team isn't getting a cash injection. does it say whos shares he bought?

@Bones said in Next Broadcasting Deal:

@Kiwiwomble had it for a couple of months, got into The Bear but found it pretty shit to navigate and couldn't figure out what star wars or marvel stuff was the good ones. Use prime all the time.

I was surprised at how big Disney is but it's not as big as prime.

do you have paramount+ over there? was disappointed when i saw how many shows advertised on prime we're actually behind a second subscription

i considered Disney+ one of the big ones, maybe not netflix big but in the running with all the rest, with the marvel stuff (previously) and Star wars i have probably watch it more than Amazon

@Bovidae said in Next Broadcasting Deal:

@Kiwiwomble said in Next Broadcasting Deal:

the thing i ask myself...if there isn't competition for the rights....why? if its becasue these other companies dont see value in it then thats the main sign our product isn't good and we need to change it

TV3/Newshub no longer exists in its previous form and is now part of Stuff. Bascially, the only real alternatives are international streaming services.

Thats kind of what i was getting at, but getting an international streamer on board means a product that can be sold to new overseas fans like we might follow premier league football or the NFL....and to my mind to sell it to a new market we need a better product, one longer comp rather than two different ones with different formats etc...one long home and away league...easy to understand

@Nepia said in Next Broadcasting Deal:

@Kiwiwomble said in Next Broadcasting Deal:

@Nepia said in Next Broadcasting Deal:

@mariner4life said in Next Broadcasting Deal:

objectively the math doesn't add up to a huge deal.

A small population with what appears to be a shrinking percentage actively engaged in or with rugby.
One realistic broadcast option, with no free-to-air interest.
A lack of product at key times. The season is stretched too long with too many gaps, and not enough games in prime slots regularly. Even worse during the ridiculously extended test season with no games for weeks.
Half the product being Super Rugby which gets nothing but bad press and bad reviews. Another portion being NPC rugby played by kids and club players in front of their families.

You throw in NZR moves to further piss off the supporter base like the sabaticals which allow household names to not only miss half the broadcasted product, but to go play in other markets. Or taking test matches away from NZ and playing in the states.

The numbers guys at Sky aren't stupid.

Compare and contrast to NRL/AFL. More people. More product. More engagement. Constant cheerleading about the amazing product. Genuine competition driven by the free-to-air channels. And they reap the rewards.

Cheers for the discussion points ever though I don't agree with a bunch of it (you and I want different stuff from our rugby, that's fine), but obviously agree with the market size problem.

Don't agree with the usual bring up the NRL/ARL comparison, it's a given that rugby can't compete with that in Australia, but that has always been true, and a 20+ million competitive broadcasting market is a completely different beast. But, it's not hugely relevant to NZ even though the NZ sports media have been dick riding the NRL bandwagon the last two years.

However, I do believe that rugby is still the golden goose for Sky. I know on the Fern a lot are fans of a range of sports (cricket, NRL, US sports etc) so a sports package has value outside of rugby, but many of the people I know in real life have it mainly for the rugby still. I still think it drives subscriptions for Sky so if they whittle the product down anymore I 'm not as confident as you in their non stupidness.

i dont agree there is nothing to be learnt form things like the AFL.....the fact melbourne alone can be home to 9 fully profession clubs (all bigger than any NZ rugby team, plus another two moved interstate but with large melbourne support) and will huge numbers to the ground every week...makes you think NZ should be able to do better...we just need a seachange....i just dont see much of an effort to actually get more people watching, comes across as arrogant, "we're NZR...we just play and people will watch"

Oh yeah, I'm not claiming there's nothing to be learnt from AFL etc, but I think we need to acknowledge that there are pretty big differences. AFL has always had huge crowd support right?,Even the NRL has only fairly recently started having big crowd numbers. I think this year was the highest average of the NRL era.

just double checking and the average attendance in the late 80's or early 90's seems to be 10k-20k....which doesnt feel much more than we use to see at NPC and then super in the 90's...although i might be romanticising

the thing i ask myself...if there isn't competition for the rights....why? if its becasue these other companies dont see value in it then thats the main sign our product isn't good and we need to change it

my personal feeling is its only us rugby weirdos that truely care about having the best players playing the best rugby at all times....but the the market of people that just want some sport with a competitive and understandable competition with some fluff like fantasy or drafts is much larger

@Nepia said in Next Broadcasting Deal:

@mariner4life said in Next Broadcasting Deal:

objectively the math doesn't add up to a huge deal.

A small population with what appears to be a shrinking percentage actively engaged in or with rugby.
One realistic broadcast option, with no free-to-air interest.
A lack of product at key times. The season is stretched too long with too many gaps, and not enough games in prime slots regularly. Even worse during the ridiculously extended test season with no games for weeks.
Half the product being Super Rugby which gets nothing but bad press and bad reviews. Another portion being NPC rugby played by kids and club players in front of their families.

You throw in NZR moves to further piss off the supporter base like the sabaticals which allow household names to not only miss half the broadcasted product, but to go play in other markets. Or taking test matches away from NZ and playing in the states.

The numbers guys at Sky aren't stupid.

Compare and contrast to NRL/AFL. More people. More product. More engagement. Constant cheerleading about the amazing product. Genuine competition driven by the free-to-air channels. And they reap the rewards.

Cheers for the discussion points ever though I don't agree with a bunch of it (you and I want different stuff from our rugby, that's fine), but obviously agree with the market size problem.

Don't agree with the usual bring up the NRL/ARL comparison, it's a given that rugby can't compete with that in Australia, but that has always been true, and a 20+ million competitive broadcasting market is a completely different beast. But, it's not hugely relevant to NZ even though the NZ sports media have been dick riding the NRL bandwagon the last two years.

However, I do believe that rugby is still the golden goose for Sky. I know on the Fern a lot are fans of a range of sports (cricket, NRL, US sports etc) so a sports package has value outside of rugby, but many of the people I know in real life have it mainly for the rugby still. I still think it drives subscriptions for Sky so if they whittle the product down anymore I 'm not as confident as you in their non stupidness.

i dont agree there is nothing to be learnt form things like the AFL.....the fact melbourne alone can be home to 9 fully profession clubs (all bigger than any NZ rugby team, plus another two moved interstate but with large melbourne support) and will huge numbers to the ground every week...makes you think NZ should be able to do better...we just need a seachange....i just dont see much of an effort to actually get more people watching, comes across as arrogant, "we're NZR...we just play and people will watch"

damn this thread is depressing....the 2025 All Blacks thread has been full of chat about Toeava, Piutau, Bridge and Havili....the future is bright

NZ rugby investing in the infrastructure to broadcast from the major grounds would be an interesting move...so new broadcast partners had lower overhead to get their foot in the door...might drum up a little more competition

what kind of stuff was on NZR+...was it just "behind the scenes" stuff?

@Nepia dont aim too low, if youre talking to a global platform then go global

edit:...although this just popped up on my feed....

https://www.theroar.com.au/2025/01/11/rugby-australia-on-track-to-confirm-broadcast-extension-with-nine-nzru-set-to-cop-multi-million-downgrade/

@taniwharugby said in Next Broadcasting Deal:

@Kiwiwomble said in Next Broadcasting Deal:

doesnt Sky own Prime

think @Nepia is talking Amazon Prime, not the Sky Channel "Prime", that has since become SkyOpen I think (probably to avoid such confusion)

@Nepia said in Next Broadcasting Deal:

@taniwharugby said in Next Broadcasting Deal:

@Kiwiwomble said in Next Broadcasting Deal:

doesnt Sky own Prime

think @Nepia is talking Amazon Prime, not the Sky Channel "Prime", that has since become SkyOpen I think (probably to avoid such confusion)

Cheers, I was wondering why @Kiwiwomble thought Sky owned (Amazon) Prime.

OH! ignore me, as you were

agree with @antipodean, would be very happy seeing i already have AMAZON Prime, would even pay a small top up like i currently do for STAN

thats how you get it into new markets, put it on a service people already have...and when theyre bored...they might go..."maybe i'll try that"

doesnt Sky own Prime?...maybe im wrong or its changed since i left NZ

personally i kind of feel NZR needs to buckle up for some pain...but for long term gain, take less money but with a free to air, couple of games a week free kind of deal...but then make a really cheap streaming service for those of us you want to watch all our teams games...try and make watching rugby even more common...and get a big deal a few years down the track.....getting less money but still having it stuck behind an expensive subscription.....i think is just going to piss people off

my money is on Withy....just feel its been coming for a while and i think JJ will like a local grown guy, coming through, i just feel a loosie is one of the better places to lead from

@SouthernMann said in Highlanders 2025:

@frugby said in Highlanders 2025:

@Canes4life They have, seems to be a combo deal. Sammy G Design is listed as head of content on the website, and she designed the graphic for the squad naming.

There is another company who I believe is helping with broader marketing and has done the videography stuff.

.... I also believe they utilise students as well in these roles.

I remember talking about this last year or maybe the year before, looking back and realising my club teams were generating more content than the highlanders, and what the Highlanders were doing was just either stills from training...team naming...or reposting other peoples stuff. If volunteers can actually create at least a couple of things a week then surely a partially paid role can do more...disappointing

@Canes4life can we ask if your mate decided to leave or did the Landers decide not to have a dedicated person?

@frugby sounds about right, until we truely know thats this social media thing will take off i dont see the point in really committing to it, maybe we have the photocopier running making some fliers

@Matiunz said in Super Rugby 2025:

Does anyone know if classic is doing another run on the retro jerseys?

you'd think they'd have to, give the poeple what they want

@frugby some of us are definitely a bit cynical.....my first thought was they will claim to have accurate stats and fantasy will be a game changer....but thats as far as they'll go, claim its better...hope im wrong

its just a highlanders fans group of facebook, but no real need to check it out