NRL clubs unhappy with Nine games
Rugby League clubs are furious with Channel Nine and the NRL over a scheduling practice that favours teams with bigger followings.
- Published by David Knox
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Rugby League clubs are furious with Channel Nine and the NRL over a scheduling practice that favours teams with bigger followings such as the Broncos and Dragons.
The Knights, Sharks and Warriors will not have a single game on Nine for at least the first seven rounds of the competition. The Panthers and Raiders have been allocated only one Sunday match on Nine in the first seven weeks.
“There needs to be equality across the board because it’s not a level playing field at the moment,” Sharks boss Richard Fisk told the Daily Telegraph.
He has called on a system similar to the AFL which ensures a guaranteed fair share of free-to-air games.
Last year, the Sharks, Roosters and Warriors all had less than six matches on Nine. The Broncos had 18 and Dragons 15.
But Nine’s deal with the NRL does not expire until the end of 2012. It could be a long wait for true equity.
Source: news.com.au
26 Responses
Freo and Port Adelaide get plenty of FTA coverage in their homemarkets but perhaps not live.
The Raiders and Warriors, unless making a finals appearance Always get the minimum amount of FTA games – which according to the FTA rights deal is Two.
That’s right – Two games all year. Warriors – possibly understandable given they are not based in Australia, but the Raiders certainly are. Basically, a result of this is that the Raiders almost never get a Friday night game, and chances are that when they do, they’ll be playing an away game.
If you want to watch the Raiders play live here in Canberra, chances are you’ll have to head out to Canberra Stadium on a Saturday or Monday night.
It really is very unfair. Makes me wish that WIN could pick up the rights to show local teams into the relevant market every week.
Been saying that for years…
Finally the teams have said something.
Even with the option of watching rugby league at 1.00am, I find Guthy Renker far more exciting and edge of your seat. In fact most rugby league players could try an ab king pro to see if it reduced the size of their necks.
Since when does the AFL have equality? How many Fremantle or Port Adelaide games will be on FTA this year? Not many.
But that is the way it will always be in sport. The big teams get more air time. Same with the NFL, NBA, and all major European football leagues.
It is funny how free to air complain about Foxtel sports, and want be people to support them. But they do what they want, not what the fans want, and the coverage is getting worse. Foxtel play every game, every weekend.
Clubs that get brushed by 9 should stop players from going on The Footy Show and instead tell 7 they will happily appear on the new Matthew Johns show.
Well i’d like to see GO! show NRL matches here in Adelaide. All we get are the Friday night games at 1am. Surely they could put matches on GO! over the weekend at a reasonable time. How’s the game meant to grow?? Ten and Seven show all scheduled matches into NSW/QLD don’t they? Even if it is at midnight.
Oh please, try being a Storm supporter (in any state of this country)! All Sydney gets are Sydney teams playing, and Melbourne only gets it on delay! And Queensland-based games are also frequently on delay to Sydney. Don’t you know you’re supposed to barrack for the team closest to where you live??!!
Part of the problem with certain teams getting more FTA coverage is that it entrenches their advantage when it comes to raising revenue. More FTA games mean their sponsors get more exposure and the other teams suffer when it comes to approaching sponsors because those sponsors know they’ll get no free coverage on Nine. Apart from the broadcast issues, It is a pain being a country fan who can’t make Friday or Monday games, waiting until the last minute to buy tickets, when most of the best tickets have already gone.
the fta’s being able to show games on the multi channel would also help fix the problem.
i think the nrl should sell the rights for all games in non nrl states to foxtel so at least people in those states with paytv could see games live rather than on 5 hour delay. this would also be a good way to increase interest in the game in those states.
Nobody wants to watch the Sharks. They have a tiny supporter base. They have poor attendance numbers at their games. And obviously there is ratings evidence that when their games are shown they don’t rate. Plus they play like crap. They ran 2nd last last year. 43 years and won bugger all. They are the Yasmin of the NRL.
Richard Fisk is upset because he doesn’t get the payday associated with the game being on TV. Perhaps if his players played a brand of football worth following and won some games they may be on TV more. But we know that won’t happen.
And yes, like ryaneco, I’d rather watch the Dragons too 🙂
Lol @ “Yasmin of the NRL.”
I’m only interested in watching the Dragons 🙂
well these clubs better prey 7 don’t get the rights in a few years. because things will get worst if they do get the rights
It happens in all sports. This isn’t anything new.
AFL: If you are a non-Victorian team, you’re not getting much national exposure on FTA this season. If you’re Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon… the bulk of your games are on 7 or 10. If you’re Fremantle, West Coast, Port Adelaide… you’re on FTA about 4 times throughout the year. That’s out of 88 games on 7 or 10.
There’s just too much power in one broadcaster’s hands. I hope the next deal not only brings more money into the NRL, but that they also successfully split the rights (Origin, regular season, finals, internationals) or maybe even split the regular season into Friday, Saturday and Sunday/Monday packages.
Whatever the case, no broadcaster should have say over game scheduling.
Sucked in Sharks. I have a personal hate for the sharks since they cancelled their Adelaide deal. Anywho, the NRL system is odd though cos they don’t reveal schedule until few weeks before match, thats gotta make it difficult for the supporters not knowing when games are, how can they commit to attending??
The AFL system isn’t fair though either. We get all Port Adelaide and Crows games shown here, but only like 4/5 Port games are actually on free-to-air. But Collingwood have like 22 games free-to-air with most Friday night. No wonder the clubs they get the most free-to-air coverage have higher memberships. They get national exposure.
I can understand that Nine wants to maximise its ratings – that’s reasonable – but there should be some system which ensures that every club gets a minimum number of FTA games. It’s totally unfair that Brisbane get Friday games almost every week while Canberra, because they aren’t in a major ratings market, are lucky to get a handful of games on Nine in a whole year.
The blatant favouring of Easts this year – six FTA games in the first seven rounds, despite having a tiny support base and coming dead last in 2009 – is also concerning. I’m sure it helps that their big boss Nick Politis has all sorts of connections at Nine.
I hope ONE HD can get the NRL then they could air more games each week and more live, or just move them to FoxSport?
but isn’t that the same like any other shows, if there’s only a few followers (audience) then why show them??
Nine are choosing the friday matchups that they believe will bring the best ratings. There’s nothing wrong with that. No surprise the Broncos has been picked many times. There are only 3 QLD sides. Nine have to have something to bring in ratings for the QLD market as well, and QTQ9 are a supporter of the Broncos.
re Sharks, Roosters, Warriors.. those haven’t been performing sides, so why would Nine pick them often and chance damaging the ratings?
The Warriors and Roosters had plenty of showings on Friday night football back when they were top sides. The Sharks haven’t been anything special for a while.
The FTA networks don’t pay $ for TV rights deals for nothing. They deserve to do what is in their best interests.
If they start choosing the lower end clubs/matchups for broadcast, ratings drop and then it lowers the value of future TV rights deals. What good is that?
Umm, why would we want to see crapper teams over great teams just so everyone gets treated the same, I think its fine. This ensures we see only the best games. The bigger issue is that all games need to be on free to air, but thats another issue…
The reason the NRL does this with Nine is to get more people to games where the teams aren’t as popular. If you broadcast it on TV people are more inclined to be reclined, if you get my drift.
Wow, RL bosses complaining again. For a tough sport they like to cry about everything that impacts them while ignoring what happens to people impacted by their players