Can NZR+ be a digital game changer?
Rugby primes itself to enter the streaming market, the Super semis are set, the Warriors uptick gets really upticky, Australia wins the WTC, Djoker wins the French... and a couple of 'grubby' stories.
Fresh off his analysis of the creation of a potentially game-changing TVNZ sports hub, covered off here on Friday, Duncan Greive burst forth with a sports media scoop that should pique the interest of execs from Sky to Silicon Valley.
Under the Spinoff headline, “Revealed: NZR+, a new digital All Blacks platform that could spell trouble for Sky”, Grieve outlines how “intellectual property (IP) filings and a new domain name linked to NZ Rugby reveal a new platform which contains a clear potential for an enormous change in the way the organisation behind the All Blacks and Black Ferns manages its games”.
The filings arrived in early April to IPONZ, the government agency in charge of intellectual property. They allow for “broadcasting of rugby matches”, “streaming live sports events”, “sports ticketing”, “subscription broadcasting” and a large number of other potential business verticals. This raises the spectre of a new streaming platform which could allow NZ Rugby to sell access to All Blacks, Black Ferns, NPC or Farah Palmer Cup games via a paid subscription streaming service. Depending on which countries it’s sold in, this could imperil the close relationship between NZ Rugby and Sky, which has held NZ Rugby’s broadcast and streaming rights in New Zealand for decades.
The concept of direct-to-consumer sports networks and streams is not new - Manchester United TV started in 1998 - and it has been talked about at NZR board level for a number of years.
The concept raises a number of questions around its broadcast arrangement with Sky, which Greive addresses, as well as the likely Silver Lake impetus behind such a move. In casual conversations with a couple of industry experts, the following points and questions were noted:
Yes, Silver Lake’s expertise through its stake in Endeavor, which itself has interests in several highly successful subscription products including UFC, will likely expedite NZR’s move into this area, but… there is a counter argument that NZR could build it just as effectively by employing capable senior executives working with specialist contractors for a lot less than the Silver Lake deal will ultimately cost the national union. In other words, this is an obvious play that probably didn’t require private equity expertise or capital.
Funding, operating and marketing a content hub will cost NZR a lot of money in a non-core industry.
What is the downstream cost of trying to box Sky in? NZR is already on the back foot trying to justify a new deal at the old level of $100m a year.
In relation to the above, do they have half an eye on partnering with TVNZ’s new free-to-air product?
Is there an international audience? For all the talk of tens of millions of latent All Blacks fans in the US alone, is this based upon actual meaningful connections, or merely brand awareness? If it’s the former, this could be a brilliant strategic play. If it’s the latter, an expensive irrelevance.
What historic content will they have the rights to (see main image) and is there an appetite for what will inevitably be seen as a critic-free marketing arm of the national body?
Whatever your thoughts on the above, it signals the start of an intriguing move into the digital realm, something NZR has been slow to embrace, as can be evidenced by the clunky www.allblacks.com, which this afternoon was still leading on a story from five days ago.
If you’d asked most rugby fans who they thought would contest the finals of Super Rugby Pacific, I’m guessing most would have said the Crusaders, Blues, Chiefs and Hurricanes, but if one Australian team was to gatecrash, it would likely be the Brumbies.
For all the issues around preordainment, there were at least some wicked twists to the stories.
The Chiefs, brilliant all year, nearly capitulated again to the one team that seems to have their measure - the Reds.
Said Clayton McMillan: “Just the way that they play makes it a real grind, so certainly a few grey hairs there, but I’m really proud of the last 15 minutes when we went down and got direct. We were able to build phase counts, we were able to score points when it mattered, and we won the game. That’s all that matters.”
The Crusaders, serial winners, are serially winning again but this time with an injury list nearly as long as a tour rider for the Rolling Stones. They finished the quarter-final against Drua with 13 men on the field.
Said Scott Robertson after flanker Ethan Blackadder went off injured, again: “I just feel for him. It’s a tough sport, but it feels a bit unfair on him.”
The Hurricanes lost a 33-37 thriller to the Brumbies in Canberra, and departing coach Jason Holland was right on two fronts: one, they should have won the game without the need for a after-the-hooter intervention and; two, the TMO process that denied an emotional Ardie Savea a try is cack.
Said Holland: “TMOs were brought into the game so we get things right, especially in big situations at the end of the game. That was the driving force when we brought them in, and I just think we’ve created opportunities not to get it right… [referee] Nic Berry could've said ‘try or no try?’ They can do that, which would’ve been a totally different scenario. Why he didn’t I’m not sure. But my main point is are we creating all these little outs to stop us from getting the outcome we’re looking for from the TMO.”
The Blues will never get a better chance to beat depleted archrivals Crusaders in Christchurch.
Said Dalton Papali’i: “I know the boys will be looking forward to it. There’s a bit of bad blood there with us and the Crusaders, but that’s what you look forward to, these big challenges. Going down there and getting one against them in a big game … you couldn’t ask for a better opportunity.”
Roll on Friday.
Crusaders v Blues, Christchurch, Friday 7.05pm
Chiefs v Brumbies, Hamilton, Saturday 7.05pm
The Bounce has been reliably informed that when it comes to New Zealand television ratings, Super Rugby still trumps the Warriors and the NRL by a good margin. In fact, the Warriors brilliant win against Canberra was the fifth-highest rating of the weekend footy, behind the four Super Rugby playoffs. The biggest television audience was the Blues Friday-nighter against the Waratahs.
Yet when the Warriors finally return to play at Mt Smart on Friday, June 30, against the rabbit-skinners of South Sydney, you can guarantee the place will be fizzing in a way that their crosstown, cross-code compatriots have not been able to engender at Eden Park - not even in a playoff.
There is an element of apples and oranges. Eden Park is much bigger than Mt Smart, so a decent crowd can still feel sparse and disconnected, but it still makes for a provoking thought exercise.
What is it about the Warriors and the NRL that, despite league being very much the poor cousin compared to rugby here, creates a more vivid, visceral game-day experience?
Friday night was a television exercise, however, as the Warriors triumphed in the harsh climes of Canberra. One passionate man who watched every second on tenterhooks (and has almost certainly watched a full replay too) is Dai Henwood. I asked him to describe his five favourite things about the match.
Dai delivered.
1. The first-half defence. It was an emotional game and Canberra threw everything at the Warriors for the first 30 odd minutes. The Warriors defended with spirit, focus and kept the score close. When you show up like that in defence, scoring points seems to take care of itself.
2. Putting teams away. For the second time in as many weeks the Warriors got a lead and ran away with it. Too often in the past we left the door open for teams to steal a game with a late flurry of points. Against the Dolphins and Raiders we put our foot down and closed out the game, not only getting the two points but adding some fat to our points differential.
3. This is a controversial one but the sin bins. I love seeing the Warriors playing aggressive football. Both Marata Niukore and Mitch Barnett were inches away from legal yet bone-shuddering shots. The Warriors used to be known as a team that left their opponents bruised win, lose or draw. That physical intensity is back in 2023 and with it the wins.
4. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad. Last year fans seemed to become devout Christians and their god was Reece Walsh. When he left the club so did his sidesteps, pace and dubious Koala-style tackles. We opted for the settled style of Charnze. He plays the style of football the Warriors need: staunch defence, tough runs out of our own territory and is solid under each and every high ball. In recent weeks, his runs around the ruck off Wayde Egan and Tohu Harris are causing issues for the opposition and giving the Warriors another option on attack.
5. Beating top-eight sides away from home. The season began with a hiss and a roar yet I was worried things would fall apart when facing solid opposition. The Dolphins win at home was great, but to beat a very strong Raiders playing for their captain Jarrod Croker’s 300th game was another level. This sends us into a bye and then a game against the Dragons. There should be another four points on offer and then (if the hard work continues) a spot in the top eight.
Thanks, Dai!
Australia inevitably won the World Test Championship last night and inevitably became the first team to hold all the ICC world trophies there can be won, men and women.
Because the weather was kind and the final was played at one of the world’s great venues in one of the world’s great cities, this felt like more of an occasion than two years ago when New Zealand won deep on the sixth day on the outskirts of Southampton, but to these eyes at least it meant less.
The Cricket Empire Struck Back. Whoopee.
India captain Rohit Sharma wants the final to be a three-test series, which both makes sense and probably won’t happen.
“Why after the IPL final? Why cannot it be March? June is not the only month we should play the final,” Sharma said. “It can be played any time of the year and anywhere in the world, not just in England, it can be played anywhere in the world.”
The 2025 final will be a one-off and is scheduled for Lord’s.
If (and I’m making the bold assumption most of you reading this are New Zealanders), can stomach it, here’s the estimable Jarrod Kimber’s rundown of how Australia took control of this WTC cycle.
The real difference from the first cycle to the second is that New Zealand - and even India - dropped off. Australia improved, but really, the other two were not as good due to injuries and retirements.
Also, let us not discount some good fortune that came to them. Pakistan had a great WTC run and then decided to make wickets at home that were basically impossible to get a result…
A very similar thing happened to England as well. Their form was utterly terrible during the important part of this WTC.
An interesting story on Stuff over the weekend concerning more problematic relationships between former All Whites’ goalkeeper Michael Utting and older women.
Utting was the subject of an excoriating report on TVNZ’s Sunday programme in 2018, when six women testified that he had taken money from them and not repaid it.
Seemingly undaunted by the negative blowback from that story, Utting began a relationship with an unnamed Levin woman 32 years his senior. He is 53.
Although he states that the relationship is based upon genuine love, her family point to frequent payments paid from her account to his, which has at times left the woman, who they say suffers from senile confusion, unable to service her bills.
Utting, who put together a complicated and colourful career as a shot stopper, describes the claims of the woman’s family to be a “knife in my back”, but reading the story in its entirety and it’s difficult not to think that if anybody is adept at plunging sharp implements into rear torsos, it is not the women.
The whole thing plays out so grubbily, you’ll need to wash your hands after reading.
Daphne’s sister, Cherie Rikihana Armstrong, who holds the power of attorney, said Daphne had withdrawn from some activities she once enjoyed, so she could be available if Utting phoned her.
But apart from Daphne, “no one is appreciative of his contact”, she said.
“He says ‘I love you. You’re so beautiful today. How are you my darling?’, that sort of thing.”
Bank documents seen by Stuff showed Daphne was reliant on her fortnightly government superannuation payment. They show that from March 2021 to April 2023 nearly $20,000 was sent to accounts associated with Utting.
More than $16,000 of that was paid to an account under his name. After her family challenged her over the payments, Daphne made a further $1300 in transfers to “Freddy” - the name of her dog - which turned out to be Utting. According to the documents, she also paid approximately $2200 to a rental company for a sleep apnoea machine for Utting.
When Daphne’s husband died in 2013, she had a freehold home and a nest egg. But, in the last two years she also drew down on a reverse mortgage on her home, which now totals more than $180,000, the documents show. Her family doesn’t know where that money has gone.
According to the story the family have tried without success to engage the authorities, which in itself beggars belief.
On the subject of grubby stories, I’d be surprised if this is the last we hear of this story involving high-performance athletics coach Andrew Maclennan. It seems to me that a lot of people in sport and education knew of his murky past, so several eyes must have turned blind when employing or appointing him.
Either that or due diligence is non-existent.
H/t to subscriber and avid golf fan David Thomas, who pointed to analysis in The Atlantic that suggests the PGA-LIV-DP World merger is far from a done deal due to antitrust legislation.
The most basic principle of US antitrust law is that companies with large market share can’t make agreements to avoid competing against each other. It is very difficult to characterise the PGA-LIV merger in any other way.
Can PGA Tour, PIF deal survive antitrust concerns? ($), per The Athletic.
PGA-LIV Merger Raises More Legal Questions Than Ethical Ones, per the Washington Post.
The merger, too, raises antitrust questions. For instance, will LIV and PGA remain competitors? Or might they come up with some rule that spells out how many tournaments players may (must?) compete in for each? Because if they don’t bid against each other, player incomes might actually tumble. After all, the only reason LIV has had to offer so much money is that it’s trying to pry pros away from the PGA.
Small wonder that federal authorities reportedly plan to scrutinise the merger. Until about five minutes ago, the feds were investigating the PGA for — well, pretty much the same stuff that Phil Mickelson and his fellow plaintiffs alleged in their suit. Now that the PGA has waved the white flag and agreed to create an umbrella group alongside LIV, authorities are going to look into that too.
He might not be my favourite player, or even in my top 50, but Novak Djokovic, who won the French Open with a rather perfunctory straight sets win over Casper Ruud overnight, is a genius and the most successful men’s tennis player, by the Grand Slam metric, of all time.
Ruud has now made the past two finals, which is nothing to mock, but in matches against Rafa Nadal and Djokovic, he’s won no sets and forced just one tiebreak (which he lost 1-7).
Jarrod Kimber’s stats were really interesting from a NZ perspective - Williamson best average from all countries for the 2 year cycle this time, with Mitchell, Conway, Latham and Nicholls all featuring in the top batters list. The bowling on the other hand - collectively and individually ranking badly aside from Southee. I’d convinced myself it was only in the last couple of months of test playing we’d fallen off the bowling cliff but apparently not.
The Utting story did indeed made me want to wash my hands. The MacLennan story - words fail me. As Sally said above, it’s unlikely there’s more than one young woman and her family affected by his behaviour.
Sheesh, that Andrew Maclennan story was grubbier than expected. Horrendous. If parents with clearly financial means to use solicitors etc etc to try to get rid of him didn't do it, it makes one wonder about any others he's 'met' with whose parents weren't in the same position.