Patrick Delany's parting gift to Aussie sports fans
What will Len Blavatnik's DAZN do about the record NRL rights deal?
Patrick Delany's default mode is manically chipper. In a puff piece published by The Australian in August, which miraculously preceded his last day as Foxtel chief executive by a couple of weeks, Delany was asked to describe his legacy. "I'd like to be known as Captain Disruption," he replied with a straight face. The 60-year-old does a good line in self-deprecation, but it seems this answer was irony-free.
Delany can also be impulsive: like the time he apologised for making a joke about Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke being a "short, dumpy girl" at the Australian launch of the series prequel; or when he apologised for performing a Nazi salute at work; or, more recently, when he almost doubled the amount Foxtel will pay as part of the record $5.3 billion 2028-2034 NRL broadcast rights deal.[[Headline numbers for sports rights deal should be taken with a grain of salt but NRL chairman (now executive chairman) Peter V'landys says 95 per cent of the total is cash and he would never guild the lilly. V'ladys deserves credit for achieving his main goal which was to beat the previous $4.5 billion AFL deal.]]
Delany hasn't apologised for blowing his brains out securing the rights and, of course, he never will. But at recent NRL functions that have formed part of his farewell tour – such as the Dally M Awards and the grand final – he's been uncharacteristically subdued, at least according to some close observers of his vibe.
Foxtel has agreed to increase the amount it pays to broadcast the great game of rugby league from $270 million a year currently to $520 million when the new deal kicks in. Either its sports streaming business, Kayo, has to add hordes of new subscribers or jack up its prices. When the Perth Bears is your big growth play, it seems highly likely a yield strategy needs to be deployed.
