RugbyPass inks NZR deal, page-21

You will have to ask Mr Market why he continues to be so pessimistic about Sky's future. Even without the potential of RugbyPass, the quoted value for Sky seems very low relative to domestic earnings.

Perhaps Mr Market has been off his meds for the last wee while?

With regards to RP:

If RP proves to be a success - this could be just the beginning.

Let’s say it is a 50/50 revenue split between NZR and Sky. And let’s say they do well and get 3M subs across the 100 countries they have rights to (a solid result, but not ridiculous numbers given the UK and all of Europe (except Spain) are included).

Well that would generate ~NZ$100M for NZR. Even if they only get half those subs it is still an extra $50M to NZR - and that is for just one 11 week domestic tournament!

Once things are back to 'normal' and SANZAAR are back at the negotiating table on behalf of the rugby unions, perhaps SANZAAR would be keen to do a similar revenue sharing deal with RP if the commercials are there? They would have one provider to deal with for streaming rights outside the SANZAAR countries and could generate more revenue by sharing with RP as opposed to getting cheques from a range of suppliers (which fixes the earning potential).

And I can tell you now, if NZR make a killing out of the SR Aotearoa partnership with RP...there is no way they are going to want to go back to the previous arrangement where their earning potential is capped by traditional broadcasters. They would lobby hard to continue with the OTT revenue sharing solution (and they effectively own 1.5% of RP, so naturally they would push for RP to be awarded the deal so they can 'clip the ticket' again by receiving extra dividends from Sky that a successful RP enables).

Of course, if they exceeded all expectations and got 5M subs (an average of 50K per country) that would be a whopping $162.5M revenue to NZR.

I am not saying that they will get those kinds of numbers, but the upside is enormous if this thing does succeed.

Every 100K subs they attract is an extra ~NZ$3M to NZR under a 50/50 deal (an extra ~NZ$3M for Sky too...).

I hope they sort out the Chromecast issue. Sky Aotearoa is being broadcast on an upgraded RP platform...so customers have to use a browser (the app does not work for SR Aotearoa). Mainstream won't want to have to piss around with HDMI cables to get the game on the big screen... RP need to make viewing as easy and seamless as possible.

Then again, a season pass is so damn cheap...they should still attract plenty of attention.