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Netball searching for TV deal

The Australian and NZ Netball League is still hoping to secure a broadcaster after TEN ended its deal.

2013-02-10_0127The Australian and NZ Netball League is still hoping to secure a broadcasting deal for the ANZ Championship starting on March 24.

TEN ended its four-year association at the end of the 2012 season, deeming it too “insignificant” for mainstream media and “not a premium sport”

The Herald Sun reports FOX Sports is tipped to provide coverage but Channel Nine may also be involved, with a free-to-air component included in the new deal.

In late January on their Facebook page ANZ Championship said, “Negotiations are coming to a head and we hope to make an announcement within the next two weeks. And we are looking forward to announcing a multi-platform solution that will take our game to as many fans as possible.”

Telstra has also extended its agreement for coverage by Big Pond coverage.

Updated: a petition is at change.org.au

20 Responses

  1. Why can’t abc 1 and abc 2 show basketball NBL WNBL a league W A league and netball ten do AFL and australian open and seven does Australia cricket and NRL nine do v8

  2. @blazza18 – Ten do have the rights to broadcast the Rugby Union tests (including the upcoming B&I Lions tour), and Super Rugby highlights.
    I, for one, am hoping they do a better job of it than 7 and 9 managed in recent years.

  3. @squirrel…Whether this fiddling occurred here or in England and we adopted these hybrids like the good colony we are,the fact remains,these games were thought to need changing cause they sorta suck.Test cricket boring?Change the game from 5 days to 1,and just have 50 overs.Still kinda really boring?lol…lop off another 30 overs.No matter that bowling is kinda inconsequential now.Baseball,being constructed perfectly from the start,is now and will forever remain,a game of 9 players,9 innings,6 outs per inning,and the 74.8 million fans who watched mlb last year would want it no other way.

  4. @PJ Ronins…how it is an achievement winning more Olympic medals than AFL? Surely quote of the day…

    I can understand there are a lot of people that really love netball who have commented here but lets get real. It is not a mainstream sport in the sense of people tuning in and watching. The ratings are poor and as such makes no sense for a commercial network to run with it.

    Nine and Seven wont touch it as they are smarter than TEN. ABC might as a community service but otherwise I cant see much luck for any netball lover.

    The truth hurts sometimes………..

  5. Heard the Netball CEO recently on radio, and clear 10 booted it. ABC has a women’s sport charter, with WNBL and W League being taken on. Not to mention they prob wouldn’t call it the ANZ C’ships. Leaves 7 and 9 left. Maybe it could be full circle for Luke Darcy…. 😉

    Fox has a history of accom viewers, even if the need to use the Red button more. Sad reality for FTAers that to get a decent exposure paying the way is the future way, even with IPTV rights…

  6. I can remember watching Netball when the Commbank Trophy was on ABC. Innitially the ANZ Championship was on FOX Sports for one year. THen Ten chose to pick it up as part of their Sports CHannel strategy for ONE HD. That was three or four years ago now. TEN have new owners and they belive that Netball is not big enough to make money out of. Part of the problem is that their are now NIght matches so you cant sho it in prime time. ie sell prime time ad space. Also the new strategy is to get the more popular sports nad only show them on Ten. I dont want to go on a rant about how i told you so, so i wont. I will say this and that is that a IPTV deal of some kind with Perform Media would be good. Its not much different in NZ. THe ANZ Championship is on SKY sports over their, so maybe its just a global trend.

  7. AFL and NRL do nothing for me. The commentators are little more than adjectives looking for greatness; if I hear “brilliant’ one more time I’m gonna barf! Soccer is a more cosmopolitan sport and taking audience from AFL/NRL. Ra Ra is the best (most skillful) of a bad bunch, but lacks support. I also agree with a previous poster about baseball being undervalued.

    So, I turn to two great sports, netball and womens field hockey. The national womens field hockey team has won more Olympic medals than ARL/AFL/ARU combined, or ever will win.

    The ABS stats for sporting participation (2005) showed that Soccer, Netball and Golf made the top ten. No other football code made the top ten.

    But none of that means squat. How many sports comprise gorgeous young ladies with trim bodies and skimpy uniforms throwing themselves around a court.

    The only thing I can think of that would come close is Lingerie V8 Supercars… wait!

  8. @nicks – you got a few things wrong there. Australia isn’t responsible for the different games based on cricket – they’ve all come out of England and Wales. The rules for netball were also distilled and clarified from women’s basketball in England and then spread throughout Commonwealth countries. Rugby League split from Rugby driven mainly by class issues in (can you guess?) England. I’m surprised that you didn’t also claim that Australians “fiddled with” soccer.

    Oh, and baseball is boring and will never be big here. The most exciting thing about it is when the MLB players go on strike or are locked out every few years.

  9. Netball has a very high participation but a very low TV profile, except for the major Aus/NZ tests.

    There is no way commercial media could ever make money from the semi-professional Aus/NZ league. The ABC shows women’s sport as a public service, but they are are only showing highlights of the soccer and basket ball and don’t really have room for it.

  10. It could go to Nine but it will conflict with their NRL and Queensland Cup rights which they could show it on 9 in non NRL states and in NRL states on GEM or Go! I think TEN should of hung on to this sport as they could try ONE to play netball live on it and when it conflicts with their rugby, MotoGP or F1 they could show it on TEN live nationally instead of showing it live in some markets

  11. It could go to Nine but it will conflict with their
    NRL and Queensland Cup rights which they could show it on 9 in non NRL states and in NRL states on GEM or Go! I think TEN should of hung on to this sport as they could try ONE to play netball live on it and when it conflicts with their rugby, MotoGP or F1 they could show it on TEN live nationally instead of showing it live in some markets

  12. Netball is an insigificant sport in a television sense in Australia. If it wasn’t, it would be shown on FTA and / or Pay TV. Even if they do find a broadcaster, it will be for peanuts.

    Maybe they should do what the NBL have done and do an IPTV deal.

    As a participation sport it is massive. But participation doesn’t translate to significance or relevance on TV …. just like the A League and NBL.

  13. It seems fitting that Australia,the home of the only animal by committee…the platypus…lets put a beak on this thing that looks kinda like an otter,give it a tail like a beaver,pouches are cool…give it one of them,make it a mammal,and venomous…oh and by the way.. let’s get it to lay eggs..lol…fiddles around with its sports in a like way.Cricket gets turned into 3 games..test,50 over,20/20.Rugby..u got union,league,7s,and whatever afl was concocted from,and they change a perfectly good game called basketball into netball..geez.Now on the other hand take a game like baseball..timeless,immutable.It’s been said that setting its dimensions 60 feet 6 inches from pitching rubber to plate and 90 feet between bases was the closest man ever came to perfection.Australia’s sports are all hugely flawed,and making them into different varieties to please all men and women is fruitless.The answer is to adopt baseball as our new national pastime.

  14. Ah so TEN with Lachlan Murdoch at the helm drops Netball from ONE and Fox Sports which is owned by News Corporation is likely to pick it up … Surprised … not.

    Hope Nine do get some of it, be a nice way to say make GEM a little bit more of the station they said it would be, I am bit disappointed GEM hasn’t had any of the Women’s World Cup Cricket on (enjoyed it last time GEM showed the Women’s Cricket).

  15. Netball is in no way an insignificant sport and in my opinion is one of the best sports to watch on TV given how quick and end to end the games are. Let’s hope the ANZ Championship can find a broadcaster that gives it the respect it deserves because the only thing becoming insignificant is Channel Ten.

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