Sky TV not preferred bidder for RWC
TVNZ/Spark leading bidders for 2019 Cup
News that Sky Television is not the preferred bidder to broadcast the 2019 Rugby World Cup wiped $70 million off the company’s sharemarket value. The Herald understands Spark and TVNZ have made a joint bid and are the leading bidder for the rights.
When contacted by the Herald, neither Spark nor TVNZ would comment.
If successful, it is expected Spark would stream matches over the internet, with TVNZ providing free-toair coverage.
The Rugby World Cup will be held during six weeks in Japan in September and November 2019.
Sky, which told investors yesterday it was not the preferred bidder, said it would let the market know if things changed but as negotiations were still under way, it could not comment further.
“We have been informed that negotiations are under way with the preferred party, and our bid remains in play should those negotiations fail,” Sky said. “We are not at liberty to provide further detail of the bid process at this stage.”
Sky stock fell 7.85 per cent on the back of the news, wiping $70m off the company’s market capitalisation.
The rights to the World Cup are separate to the Sanzaar rugby rights which would be negotiated in the coming months.
Sky said sports broadcasting was a competitive business and while they were disappointed to not be the preferred party, their bid would remain in case other negotiations failed.
“While the Rugby World Cup is great content and we put forward a strong bid for it, it is an incredibly expensive event that plays once every four years for six weeks,” they said.
The company said its business was built on offering sports fans content across the year.
“For 52 weeks of the year, they will also watch the Warriors and the NRL, the cricket, netball, Supercars, golf, cycling, football, basketball, Moto GP and boxing, to name a few,” they said.
Rugby World Cup rights are sold by IMG Media on behalf of Rugby World Cup. Sky has the Sanzaar rights through to 2020, including All Blacks tests, Super Rugby and the Mitre 10 Cup.
Chorus announced this week that it was looking to trial 4K broadcasting directly to customers’ homes, which would mean higher definition streaming.
“A strength of the proposed Chorus service is that it can provide guaranteed capacity, which would ensure major cultural events such as sports could be broadcast to all viewers, live and concurrently, in 4K or even 8K,” Chorus said.