Sky shares sink as it loses rugby rights lead
Television New Zealand and Spark may have wrested the rights to the next Rugby World Cup away from Sky Television.
Sky announced that it was not the preferred bidder to broadcast the Rugby World Cup in 2019.
Its shares slumped 8 per cent on the news when trading opened on the NZX yesterday.
Spark and TVNZ are understood to have agreed to put in a joint bid for the broadcasting rights, but would not comment on whether they had been told they had been successful or not.
Assuming they do win rights to the event, it is expected Spark would be likely to stream matches over the internet, with TVNZ providing free-to-air coverage.
The world’s premier rugby event will be held over six weeks in Japan between September and November in 2019.
Sky chief executive John Fellet said on Tuesday that he thought Sky had a better than even chance of keeping rugby rights for the next 15 years, but he clarified he was referring to Super Rugby.
Fellet said the Rugby World Cup was not such a good proposition for Sky because the closing stages of the competition, when interest was highest, had to be shown free to air.
‘‘By the time you put the quarterfinal, semifinal and the final all live on free-to-air, there really isn’t much of a Sky advantage. The real value is free-to-air and it is tough to make much of a meal out of things like All Blacks versus Tonga in a pool play. I’m not denigrating the event – it’s fantastic and we’d love to have it.’’
Fellet said he would not be surprised if TVNZ and Spark won the rights.
Sky’s bid was still ‘‘live’’, but he had never seen rights awarded to a contender that was not the preferred bidder, he said.
Sky was also vulnerable to being outbid for end-of-year All Blacks tours, Fellet said.
Sky said in a statement to the NZX that it was an economic reality that it couldn’t have ‘‘every match of every sport that New Zealanders like to watch’’.
Rugby World Cup rights are sold by IMG Media on behalf of Rugby World Cup Ltd.