NRL match waits on Appeal
GTV9 has agreed to hold off airing a live broadcast of an NRL match to avoid a clash with Seven's Royal Children's Hospital Appeal.
- Published by David Knox
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GTV9 has agreed to hold off airing a live broadcast between Melbourne Storm and St George Illawarra set down for 4pm on Good Friday after a request not to compete with the Royal Children’s Hospital appeal -which airs on Seven.
The annual event is an institution in Victoria, sponsored by The Herald Sun. News Ltd, which is a 50 per cent stakeholder in the NRL, owns the Storm as well as The Herald Sun.
Now the game will air at 11pm in Melbourne.
The kick-off was brought forward to 2pm because of concerns it would conflict with the appeal, but will still air in NSW at 4pm as planned.
NRL chief operating officer Graham Annesley told the Sydney Morning Herald, ”To be fair to Channel Nine, they had been more than willing to show the match live in Melbourne but have complied with a request from the Melbourne Storm and News Ltd not to because of the Royal Children’s Hospital Appeal, which is sponsored by The Herald Sun.
Channel Nine Director of Sport Steve Crawley said, ”The Good Friday Appeal is a big event in Melbourne and raises funds for the children’s hospital, which I think everyone would support.”
Nine will now air an old movie starring Peter Fonda, The Maldonado Miracle, at 2pm Friday in Melbourne.
Source: smh.com.au
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- Tagged with NRL, Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal
26 Responses
Now we need telethons all year round nationally so we can cancel all rugby league games broadcast. Undisputed, the most boring, pointless pathetic excuse for sport . Maybe we should donate to a get rid of rugby league appeal:
” Give that they may go!”
perhaps Channel 9 had an ulterior motive for allowing the NRL concession?
heraldsun.com.au/news/channel-9-outrages-rch-appeal-organisers-with-plans-for-rival-telethon/story-e6frf7jo-1225848433162
It is a strange decision.
Just because a telethon is airing does not mean other stations should cut their programming out of respect.
And it is not as though Rugby League will have a huge ratings in Melbourne.
Why not cancel the actual game as well? So the 20-30k spectators can stay at home and watch the appeal all day.
@Lou: If it wasn’t for “someone else’s religious beliefs”, as you put it, you wouldn’t have a 4-day long weekend so deal with it.
The thing that gets me is, these networks buy the rights to sport and they refuse to show it at a decent time.
Last year Nine bought the rights to the European Super League competition which had previously been shown on FoxSports.
Last year they showed the games as a lead in to their 4pm Sunday game, which was pretty good. Now they are on at 12am on a Monday morning!
Its funny to hear Ray Warren welcoming viewers from all over the world when you know damn well there are people in Australia that can’t watch an NRL game!
Rugby League is a grubby game on equal par to Greyhound racing. Who cares.
It looks like this game is live into Darwin, but won’t be aired at all in SA & regional WA. Other than regional Victoria & Tasmania also getting the game at 11pm with Melbourne, the rest of the country will see it at 4pm. Why does Darwin only get it live? Weird…
A crazy decision that is commercial suicide by the Storm. The conflict of interests here is mind blowing!
As someone who has complained time and time again about the virtually non existent free to air coverage Nine gives Rugby League fans in Melbourne, thats it for me.
If the club is willing to throw away its one, uncontested lived game a year (Outside of the GF) then they can fight their own battles from now on.
Unbelievable!
I’m not convinced Seven would have done that for Nine……
Um isn’t it bad enough all the shops are closed on good friday, despite Australia being a secular state, now we can’t even have fun @ home?
Since when should everyone be forced to obey someone else’s religious beliefs?
I thought that was that freedom thing people kept shouting about.
It should still be Live into Qld and NSW, not delayed until 4PM.
At least there is the transparency with the decision. I am also confused with the NRL having a melbourne team on and scheduling it on at the same should have been more discussions earlier if they didn’t already know that this was going to be a problem. Whilst they do put Melbourne games live on fox sports it is sad that nrl should do better with getting dealings on free to air.
I’m sorry but this is bulls**t. Who cares if the football would have of been on the same time. So what next time something like this happens they’re going to hold it back just for something so little.
In the cut throat world called Commercial Television it is at least refreshing to see this sort of co-operation for what ever reason. . I’m sure 9 would have loved to televise the NRL game at 4pm on a public holiday as this game will be one of the season highlights.There is not always an ulterior motive in these decisions.I say stop trying to analyse the ‘why’s and what for’s’ and good on you Channel 9! Everyone likes to see a good sport.
I’m not in Melbourne but this isn’t cool. I would be angry if I were in Melbourne, I’m ion NSW and a St George supporter and I’m annoyed it doesn’t air till 4.
Why should Nine roll over for the telethon; I understand that it is for a good cause; but just because there is a telethon should that force every network in Melbourne to air a blank station? Stupid excuse; stupid decision; they should’ve just gone ahead and aired it live.
Simple Question:
What are the nrl doing when their cheif broadcaster basically delays a top line game in a key market so that a bunch of over paid actors ask you to show me the money?
Please Explain NRL
Stupid. How are the Storm and NRL ever expected to build an audience and fanbase in Melbourne when this sort of stuff happens …
So the ABC, SBS and Ten should also roll-over and not put on anything which might detract from the telethon?
As if Nine was going to show it live into Melbourne anyway?
I think its stupid NRL put the storm game on good friday in melb when they new the appeal would be on. Surely they could have had 2 sydney or qld teams playing on good fri instead?
Vote one for going to the game now…. I dont want to hear the Melbourne Storm complaining about lack to FTA in their home city anymore when they had a prime chance to be on 9 in their home state but willingly surrendered the opportunity… why not run promos during the game for the appeal (I’m sure the idea of donating money to the appeal to not locked to Channel 7, right?)
This reminds me of last year, when Seven delayed the Packed To The Rafters premiere in Melbourne by a week to avoid clashing with an AFL legends game broadcast on Nine.
I actually phoned GTV’s programming department yesterday to ask about this, and when I asked if the delay had anything to do with the appeal, the man who took my call said no. He did say the same thing that is published here; GTV wanted an afternoon broadcast, but agreed to an outside request to delay it. He didn’t say anything about the Herald Sun being the culprits though.
Wow. Not that it’ll affect me, as I’m a Dragons supporter in NSW, but wow.
Surely a sensible compromise would have been for GTV to roll a banner at the bottom of the screen during the game asking for donations to the appeal. Clash of two top unbeaten sides in hot form. Always an exciting game. A 4pm Friday game on a Public Holiday the perfect chance to win more fans in Victoria.
Now before someone shrieks “Won’t somebody Please think of the children” it truly shows that the Storm and News Ltd are totally not serious about NRL in Victoria. The game should have been on at 4pm. And playing the “it’s for the kids” card is poor form and emotional blackmail. There were ways to soothe any conflict.
The NRL in Melbourne experiment has failed, and should be put out of our misery.
That is one of the most bizarre things I have ever heard
Well I was disappointed that the match will no longer be shown live in Melbourne and I will now have to listen to the match online. But the clash is bound to happen given the match will be held at Etihad Stadium where the Good Friday Appeal tally room and most of the appeal’s activities will be held during the day.
So Nine had no problems broadcasting it in the afternoon, but the Storm and News/Herald Sun have the issue. I remember when Good Friday NRL was first announced, the Herald Sun had a dramatic and hyperbolic back cover screaming that the blasphemous rugby league was trying to destroy the AFL.
This is bonkers. Do they expect people to do nothing but watch GFA all day, for hours on end? If you take two hours out of your afternoon to watch a footy game does that mean you are unable to make a donation during the spare ten+ hours the telecast is on – or, God forbid, you leave your house and give to the tin rattlers?
NRL or not, I don’t even watch the GFA anymore, it’s mostly just Home & Away ‘actors’ mispronouncing Victorian place names for twelve hours. It would be sadly ironic if there was an ill child looking forward to seeing the Storm play at a reasonable hour on free-to-air. 🙁