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Seven chasing State of Origin rights

The Seven Network is believed to be keen on getting rights to the National Rugby League's State of Origin matches.

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sooThe Seven Network is believed to be keen in getting rights to the National Rugby League’s State of Origin matches -the highest rating rounds of the code.

”We’re very keen to submit a bid for State of Origin and Test matches,” Mr Leckie said. ”We think Rugby League should split its properties into three, or four, with even the finals going to a separate network.”

There is speculation the NRL could unbundle its TV rights and offering four separate packages: Origin, Test matches, NRL regular-season matches and the finals series.

David Gallop, CEO of the NRL, has confirmed he would split the properties if it increased revenue.

News Ltd presently owns half the competition as well as holding a 50 per cent share in its major TV broadcaster, FOX Sports. But News Ltd has hinted it could walk away from rugby league and rescind its NRL half-ownership.

Currently the games air on Nine and FOX Sports.

TEN has also indicated interest in buying NRL regular-season matches.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Mr Leckie and Mr Gallop would win by seizing revenue from rivals – Seven taking advertising from Nine and the NRL undermining the AFL’s push into western Sydney and the Gold Coast.

Source: smh.com.au

38 Responses

  1. Mr Leckie ….. your a clown!…
    i think seven is starting to be greedy!… and very cockie too..
    nine is the only network who will do the nrl justice or TEN.
    seven…No way!!! and back off!!

    the Only network who should do the state of origin is Nine! they have done it from day one…and should remain that way…

    Mr Leckie….. just back off.

  2. is it too cynical to suggest that ch 7 is simply trying to force ch9 to pay through the nose for a product ch9 probably feels it has no real competition for. But is it really the best to take the most important games away from the main broadcaster?? Surely SOO as a one-off ch7 coverage would be a bit dodgey. i don’t dispute there are good commentators on other networks, but if you’re not calling/covering the sport week in week out…..i don’t know, just seems a bit odd. Like having ray warren call the AFL finals series because ch9 is willing to gazump ch10 for that part of afl coverage.

  4. @kyttsy. yeah i forgot about that

    if new ltd do pull out. i reckon 9 will just about call it a day as well. 9 want the afl rights and this will give them the green light to show afl games into the northern states live on friday nights

  5. Oh god please dont let this happen. Im from Vic and SOO and the GF are pretty much the only 4 games a year i watch. 9 do an awsome job with the coverage. if it moves from Nine please, please, please get it ten. 7 will murder it just like they did AFL and v8’s. Ten do sport coverage best, As for league i hope ten get it it would make them more competive especially if they get friday and saturday night games. they would garentee to win 24 sats a year combined with AFL

  6. Seven has little experience in covering rugby league apart from a few international tests in Australia in the early 1990s, but is very good in rugby union coverage. If Seven decides to walk away from covering rugby union tests involving the Wallabies, it can easily transfer the resources to rugby league.

  8. As long as Seven has AFL, it will not bid for NRL.

    Seven only wants the high rating games, nothing else.

    In fact, the only one with significant clout is One/Ten, as they have the capability for Foxtel, to actually be a loser, and actually air all eight games once the right hurdles are removed (cough”anti-siphoning”cough).

    In fact, if Ten had the NRL, I reckon their ratings would improve in QLD and NSW, particularly in Brisbane.

  9. Don’t let 7 get the rights to the NRL. They’ll ruin it, just like the poor quality they have done with the V8 Supercars. 10 did a much better job!!

  11. i would be extremely happy if 10 got the rights to the nrl.they use to have them years ago. graem hughes, ian maurice, rex mossip and junior pearce were the commentators and they did a great job.

  12. This would be really good in my opinion. If this came around with a law change I would like co-ownership between Ten, Nine and Foxtel.

    This would be a dream come true. Nine could have their two Friday night games and their Sunday afternoon game, Ten could get two Saturday night games and Foxtel keeps one game on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, in Sydney and Brisbane. Ten could then show NRL games live on OneSD/HD in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth (possibly just retransmitting the Nine games under the One logo, along with their own Saturday games). State of Origin can be alternated, along with the Finals Series.

  13. @goffy – The games would have to be shown on Ten first……. i do agree Nine should show the NRL in Vic…. But i dont think Seven would commit to that either.

    @Vic – Standout job?? The only good thing on OneHD is the F1…. if they didnt have that i would delete them off my tv…… I dont really think they are standing out in anything….. we apart from being the lowest rating free-to-air channel in Australia

    Not really sure if spliting the game on different networks is a good idea…… Ray Warren is the best in the business and 9 wouldnt be letting him go anywhere.
    So in other words you would have a couple of rusty commentators that only get to call a couple of games a year. I agree with wat someone said below, that the only reason Seven would bid is to make Nine pay more.

  14. Yes! I hope we see some matches on ONEhd! That was the biggest thing missing from One, I mean sure it has afl which is great for most states but nsw and qld love their rugby league football.

  15. I say Nine, don’t let Seven get the rights. They don’t deserve them. They won’t do justice. Plus they’re not the ones with an NRL Footy Show and two other NRL shows on Sunday mornings.

  16. What the hell does this statement mean: “Mr Leckie and Mr Gallop would win by seizing revenue from rivals – Seven taking advertising from Nine and the NRL undermining the AFL’s push into western Sydney and the Gold Coast.”???

    Oh that’s right; the article being cited is a Roy Masters opinion piece.
    This guy reckons rugby league is the centre of the universe, blames the AFL for all of Rugby League’s problems in Australia, and has been complaining for years that the NRL deserves more money from TV rights than the AFL, despite the Australian Football League being the only real national sporting competition, watched by more people in more places and for more hours.

    This guy is in no way a credible source for news on TV rights deals regarding sport in Australia. I wouldn’t be surprised if Masters made those David Leckie quotes up.

  17. even so im not into NRL, when “with even the finals going to a separate network”
    i think Mr Leckie means whe want the finals and nothing else, if the laws change and allow sports on digital only channels we might see some on sevens second channel, it would give GO a run for its money, also i would think the NRL would want some games on fox sports because of there owner, overall if networks show more games live(in all states) and in HD, they should be the ones to get the games first.
    or what about this, a game live in syd on 9 and the same game on 7 in meb for example?

  18. Having the NRL on Ten would be a win for all rugby league lovers, as games would be repeated on free-to-air (One HD), which would expose the NRL to more fans (because in 2012 more people will have access to One HD than Fox Sports), it would also be a win-win situation for Ten to have Australia’s highest rating winter sport on their network.

    More people may attend AFL matches, but rugby league as a television product is more important because it is 66 of the top 100 pay tv shows as well as being the highest rating football code in Australia with 200,000 more viewers than the game created to keep cricketers fit during the winter.

  20. Seven will do everything to screw up a good sports coverage!

    The V8’s have declined in quality, and Seven never ask the AFL to broadcast live, in comparison to TEN/ONE!

    I hope Seven doesn’t get rights to the nrl, it should stay on Nine where its great or possibly Ten/ONE won’t be too bad, look at the quality of Ten/ONE’s sound and picture and how committed they are to what they already got.

  23. with 9 paying through the nose for WB and olympics as well as their current NRL goods and not being the super profit driver that they used to be. this could turn out to be a real possibility.

    or maybe leckie is just driving up the price for 9 again. he was succesful doing that with the WB deal.

  24. Nine should be throwing everything they have at trying to keep the rights in their hands. In the interest of viewers, I’d love to see Ten/One win the rights, as they seem to be doing a standout job as of late.

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