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Nine storm in an NRL cup

In the new NRL fixture some clubs are unhappy because their matches won't feature prominently on Free to Air TV.

Thursday night games, Friday night games, Sunday twilight games and Monday night football….

There’s plenty in the first 20 rounds of NRL’s fixture that has fans talking, but not always for the right reasons.

The ARL has been generous to Nine in its scheduling of games, but some clubs are unhappy because their matches won’t feature prominently on Free to Air TV.

Canberra has only one game on Nine, while Storm has just five matches on commercial television in the first 20 rounds and its only home game on a Friday night against Brisbane in round 17 clashes with the AFL blockbuster between Collingwood and Carlton at the MCG. Manly fans claim they got too many Monday night games, and there isn’t one Sunday arvo match at Leichardt oval.

Herald Sun says:
Melbourne Storm is used to a 26-round grind, with its home base in the NRL’s southern outpost meaning travel every other week, and in most seasons past they have overcome it.

But surely their success earns them some sort of respite.

It would if the broadcasters, and that means Channel Nine who have their Sydney and Brisbane blinkers on didn’t still have an inordinate amount of say in who plays where and when, and the NRL administration didn’t break its back bending over to accommodate them.

It’s staggering to think that the best team in rugby league will feature in the prime TV slot just twice in the opening 20 rounds.

News.com.au says:
Channel Nine boss David Gyngell told us when the billion dollar broadcast deal was signed earlier this year that the Broncos would continue to dominate on Friday nights, given their power to attract Queensland viewers. So the fact that they’ve been slotted in for 11 games from the first 20 rounds in that slot shouldn’t come as a major surprise. Regardless, it clearly irritates the fans of other clubs, and in some cases, Broncos fans who would like to be able to go to a game in a more family friendly timeslot.

The Australian says:
Melbourne has questioned whether the ARL Commission is still interested in developing the game in Victoria after the premiership club was one of the worst affected by next year’s draw.

While there were plenty of positives to be found in next year’s schedule, including that the first 20 rounds have been set, it was the representation on free-to-air network Nine that caused the most controversy.

10 Responses

  1. The AFL broadcasting deal is a lot better than the one the NRL has.
    If you live in WA/SA/QLD/NSW you can see every game,every round for the teams in your sate,on free-to-air,with most of them live.
    While for NRL fans who don’t have foxtel,there’s a chance you will only see a few of teams games.

  2. @Jory69 They will do a lot better next time thanks to agreeing to. Go with 9 as by doing so they got them to relinquish their first and last rights options. If they had gone with Ten then Nine would still have them next time and Fox would have had them until 2027.

  3. @MJL the only thing we need to get over is the fact that both 10 &7 were able to bump the price 9 and foxtel had to pay for the rights. Media experts have made it clear on print that 9 will lose approx $ 42million a year based on the current figure. go figure that! how it will be good for the game when the major brodcaster is losing money. Time will tell what sort of brodcast we will be getting in a few years time when 9 is put up for sale by it,s current owners “the hedge funds” I think the biggest losers are the fans who would have been able to get 4 free FTA air games live not the current 3/ 1 live and 2 delayed. league fans were robbed again. Gyngell 9 and foxtel have a lot to answer for once the comp starts and people realise that we have been duped again.

  4. To be honest if I were a raiders fan I’d be happy knowing I can watch my team live and uninterrupted for 19/20 games. Yes you will have to pay but surely at about $15 a week that’s not too much.

  5. As a passionate Queenslander and loyal fan of the fourth and most influential Far Southern Queensland team (Melbourne Storm),I commented on this fervently when the joke rights deal was announced.
    Gyngell in all his arrogant glory said then if he wants The Broncos to play every Friday night that is what they will do because they (Nine) “Own the Game”.
    This calender has finished me as a fan and will only use Nine for the video portion of State of Origin,hopefully Roy&HG might be back this year for the Audio otherwise the ABC will do.

  6. Some clown from the NRL said on radio yesterday that as part of the contract with nine, nine get to choose 52 games they want and the NRL must schedule 48 of them for their FTA slots, predominately Friday. Fox Sports thens gets to choose a further 52 games and again the NRL must schedule them over Monday nights and Super Saturday’s.

    The TV deal is an absolute disgrace. The channel 10 offer of $800M for 4 FTA games each week would have been much better. I’m sure the NRL could have gotten at least another $200M from Foxtel for the remaining 4 games each weekend if they had really tried. But they didn’t bother and chose to keep the pathetic status quo of Nine running the game. And so this is what we now have.

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