While NRL chief operating officer Andrew Abdo said the code had lost $10 million in sponsorship,Greenberg used his sworn affidavit to outline concerns that the game could pay a significant price when it came to renegotiating its next broadcast rights deal.
In defending the new stand down policy,Greenberg detailed conversations in which he said executives from Nine Entertainment and News Corp,which owns Foxtel,told him the next broadcast deal could be impacted dramatically by the de Belin saga.
“During both face to face meetings and telephone conversations they each said words to the effect that they were concerned that the charges laid against Mr de Belin would have a negative effect of the upcoming season’s rating and would significantly dilute our future broadcast values,” Greenberg’s affidavit said.
A downturn in ratings will ultimately lead to lowering of the value of the broadcast rights,which has the potential to cause losses to the NRL in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Todd Greenberg
The present five-year television deal is worth $1.8thillion and expires in 2022. Greenberg said he feared a slide in ratings could be catastrophic for the NRL when it came to negotiating a new deal for the 2023 season and beyond.
“Broadcast revenue is the major revenue source of the NRL competition,"Greenberg’s affidavit said.
“A downturn in ratings will ultimately lead to lowering of the value of the broadcast rights,which given the length of the broadcast contracts has the potential to cause losses to the NRL in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”