NZ Rugby’s bungle of communications around broadcast rights adds to simmering issue: Gregor Paul

It is understood Sky has not indicated any intent to axe the NPC from its broadcast package in the next deal it is expected to sign with NZR. Photo / Photosport

OPINION

It would seem reports of the death of the National Provincial Championship’s broadcast contract are greatly exaggerated, and news that the plug will be pulled in 2026 was treated with as much surprise within Sky as it was everywhere else.

The NPC is likely to have a different broadcast set-up when a new contract begins in 2026, but, importantly, it will have a deal of some kind.

It is not going to disappear entirely from screens despite the fact New Zealand Rugby wrote to the provincial unions last week and told them: “That future broadcast revenue values for the NPC will be significantly lower than previous broadcast agreements, on the basis that Sky TV is not expected to wish to bid for rights to broadcast every NPC/FPC [Farah Palmer Cup] game moving forward.”

There were three things about that statement that were alarming — perhaps illustrative of the concerns growing within the rugby community about the competencies in the national body’s management and executive group.

The first is that its manifestly not true — which is why this week, NZR re-sent its correspondence to the unions with that specific line deleted.

It is understood Sky has not indicated any intent to axe the NPC from its broadcast package in the next deal it is expected to sign with NZR.

There are educated assumptions seasoned analysts could make about the NPC’s broadcast future — that it may, from 2026, shift to a lower-cost base where fewer cameras are devoted to each game.

It’s also possible not every game is broadcast live in the future, but Sky is certainly not ready to walk away from a competition that continues to be a value-for-money proposition for subscribers.

The broadcaster is, after all, the self-styled home of rugby and while the NPC may not be the jewel in the crown anymore, it generates enough audience to ensure Sky will want it to maintain its market dominance.

So, too, could a body of NPC content be run on its free-to-air channel, Sky Open, to create yet more advertising inventory — as part of its publicly stated ambition to drive more revenue by selling airtime to big brands who want to be associated with rugby.

The second concern emanating from the document NZR sent out last week — it was the terms of reference for a review it is calling MPAC, Men’s Pathway and Competitions — is that it did not provide Sky or other key stakeholders with any prior notice that correspondence was being issued.

Given that Sky pays about $90 million a year to NZR for broadcast rights and is the single most valuable stakeholder to the national body in terms of investment, it’s a touch remiss not to have given it a heads-up.

It’s possibly more reckless than remiss, however, to have blindsided Sky only months before beginning the renegotiation of the broadcast contract — a deal on which the entire financial future of rugby in this country will swing.

NZR’s financial state, as revealed by the Herald this year, is being challenged by lower-than-forecast revenue and higher-than-anticipated costs, and significantly increasing the value of the existing broadcast contract is probably the only lever the national body can pull if it is to materially improve its balance sheet.

This is most definitely the time for NZR to be treading super-carefully around the only broadcast company in New Zealand with the ability to buy rugby rights.

And thirdly, if Sky had indeed indicated it was unlikely to bid to broadcast the NPC from 2026, this would have almost catastrophic consequences for the provincial unions, and would, therefore, surely be something that should have been communicated sensitively and separately and not casually buried in the MPAC document?

Not broadcasting games would endanger many of the sponsorships unions have in place, to the extent they would either lose them, or have the values significantly downgraded.

That NZR moved to correct the draft quickly is something at least, but still, the fact it was able to be sent out in the first place does reinforce the unions’ growing belief there is not enough attention to detail within the game’s headquarters.

But it’s perhaps symbolic of a deeper concern the unions raised in correspondence last year, that they fear the present NZR executive has a casual disregard for key stakeholder relationships and operates with an endemic lack of communication that fosters a lack of trust and confidence in how the game is being managed.

Perhaps the statement about the death of the NPC’s broadcast contract contained within the MPAC document was a genuine oversight and no more than a clerical error, but the unions themselves no doubt see it as yet one more occasion on which they have been callously treated, and yet one more reason to believe they are being served by a management team at NZR that doesn’t see value in high-trust relationships.