Sky TV has benefited from the entertainment provided by Super Rugby this season. Photo / Photosport
Sky TV has benefited from the entertainment provided by Super Rugby this season. Photo / Photosport
Super Rugby is winning the battle for eyeballs in 2025 and hands-down proving itself to be the big brother football code, and the property that has injected momentum back into broadcast negotiations between Sky TV and New Zealand Rugby.
The value of Super Rugby Pacific asan entertainment product – one that can grow and retain subscribers – has been powerfully evidenced this year with viewing figures showing audience numbers were up 12% on last year after three rounds.
Updated numbers haven’t been released, but Sky and New Zealand Rugby (NZR) have told the Herald that the past five weeks have continued to deliver strong growth in viewership (Australia has recorded a 30% lift after eight rounds).
Not only that, but a raft of other statistics released by NZR about the shape of the game have strengthened the argument Super Rugby is now a considerably more valuable media property than the NRL and A-League.
Halfway through the season, Super Rugby has reduced what it calls static time – game time where nothing happens – by an average of 73 seconds per game, largely by cutting down the length of stoppages in play.
The first eight rounds have also produced an all-time high average of 61 points per game and an average winning margin of 11.6 points.
A competition that almost collapsed under its own weight between 2016 and 2020 is now emerging phoenix-like from the ashes. Its Pacific-only format has produced audience numbers that, at times this year, have generated figures almost in line with those delivered by low-key All Blacks tests.
The Hurricanes v Blues fixture in round three drew an audience of more than 650,000 – figures almost unheard of when Super Rugby was in its dark phase six years ago.
Super Rugby Pacific has proven itself to be a big-ticket item, and it is the prospect of perhaps losing it that is believed to have prompted current rights holder Sky to re-engage with NZR and take a broader view of what concessions it can make to its offer to get a deal over the line.
Sky has the rights to the NRL and A-League, but data is emerging to show that while the Warriors and Auckland FC are enjoying strong support, neither can command the same volume of viewership as Super Rugby.
More than 500,000 people watched the Warriors open their season in Las Vegas, but Super Rugby draws similar, and often higher numbers, for two, if not three games in a weekend.
Meanwhile, Super Rugby had almost as many cumulative viewers after three rounds as the A-League did after 21.
Talks between Sky and NZR hit an impasse earlier this year when the latter refused to sign a deal – believed to be worth $85 million a year (the current agreement is around $100m a year) – and began courting British streaming platform DAZN and TVNZ.
Hurricanes halfback Cam Roigard in action in Super Rugby Pacific. Photo / Photosport
Whether it was a stalking horse play or a genuine negotiation with a new and ambitious broadcaster, it has had – in combination with the rising value of Super Rugby rights – the effect of re-energising Sky.
Sources have told the Herald that the prospect of a deal being struck between Sky and NZR is significantly more likely now than it was six weeks ago – although they stress an agreement is not imminent.
The main sticking point to an agreement was price but both parties are believed to be looking at ways around that.
Sky has been clear it won’t repeat what it increasingly seems to believe was a mistake of overpaying – the initial deal agreed was $111m a year until it was revised following the intervention of Covid-19, which reshaped Super Rugby and temporarily affected the international programme – and has hinted strongly that it won’t budge from the $85m per annum it is believed to have tabled.
But there may be other ways for the deal to be shaped to give NZR either real or perceived value, and chief among them may be carving out the NPC, and maybe Super Rugby Aupiki and other grassroots content.
NZR may not necessarily be able to sell the media rights to these competitions for a fee, but there would be significant value in having it on TVNZ to give the provinces the exposure they need for sponsors and to grow interest more generally in rugby.
Sky has said it is open to non-exclusive agreements in this coming broadcast cycle but if TVNZ, which has ambitions to be a higher profile rugby broadcaster, or any other domestic player was interested in securing a co-exclusive deal they would have to come up with tens of millions of dollars, which is why a carve out is more likely.
