TEN in the chase for even more NRL
TEN is said to be wanting as many as all 8 games in the next NRL broadcast deal.
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TEN’s interest in snaffling NRL rights has extended to the network now wanting as many as all 8 games.
The Daily Telegraph reports TEN is looking beyond high-rating Friday or Monday night matches and already working out budgets and potential commentary teams for 8 matches a week.
“That simply confirms the conversations we’ve had with James Warburton and Lachlan Murdoch in recent weeks,” NRL boss David Gallop said. “If you’re running a network and there’s the possibility of getting your hands on over 30 weeks of high-rating cross-demographic content, you would be mad not to be interested.”
Seven is believed to be keen to broadcast State of Origin, but could also drive up the price its rivals have to pay.
“Subject to our legal obligations, we would certainly consider breaking up our packages,” Gallop said.
Meanwhile Triple M Sydney’s The Grill Team spoke to Seven’s David Leckie who said when asked to come on the show: “No I won’t comment. The negotiation process is only about to start. It’s too early to comment. I will comment on the matter later.”
A Nine spokesperson told the breakfast show was told: “The other TV networks can do as they please… but Nine isn’t conducting its discussions through the media. No disrespect intended.”
Source: Mediaweek
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- Tagged with NRL, State of Origin
27 Responses
@Josh777… not that I want to get sucked into an AFL vs NRL discussion, but how did I lose the argument that AFL is more broadly popular when only 2.02m watched the NRL Grand Final compared to 2.6m watching the AFL Grand Final? Outside of their ‘home’ states, the NRL final had a combined total of 482,000 watching in Melb/Adel/Per in prime time compared to the AFL final where 566,000 watched in Syd/Bris in the mid afternoon…
Me thinks that the numbers speak for themselves…
Oh look, this boring argument again!
The NRL will go to Ten the FTA rights any way Friday Nights, Saturday Night and Sunday arvo Games on Ten. The rest as i have said will be on Fox Sports and the State of Origin on Seven. In terms of the International series i think Seven or Ten because of the Anti Siphoning list i dont think Fox will get any. Nine will loose because they will not be able to stump up the cash remembering they are in series debt trouble. After some 15 or 20 years Nine will end up with out their flagship sport similar to what Seven had when they lost the AFL either way one big winner out of this will be the players and the NRL.
i reckon 10 will get the rights, but not all 8 games. also they can’t just show them live only on one hd. they will share it with fox and hopefully they’ll bring in a stand alone channel
I think Ten’s best bet will be getting the rights to the NRL & the V8 supercars, can’t see them getting the Tennis off Seven & the Cricket from Nine as well.
@ PJC – firstly in regards to your comment about the AFL having a broader appeal than the NRL, the NRL Grand Final got 2.02m in the 5 metro cities as opposed to the AFL Grand Final at 2.6m and the NRL is by far watched more so in regional areas than in the cities so you sort of lost that argument (ratings for the games from these sites http://tvtonight.com.au/2011/10/2-6m-as-afl-grand-final-tops-ratings-week.html http://tvtonight.com.au/2011/10/2-02m-for-nrl-grand-final.html). Secondly, that’s not true that it is only popular in NSW and QLD, with the NT being largely NRL followers (as opposed to the AFL) and VIC is slowly growing more to the NRL with Melbourne Storm games originally being in the <10,000 a home game attendance to roughly 15,000 a game (with AMII Park built for the increasing attendance rates as well as for the Victorian A League teams).
And how are they going to show all eight games live a week exactly?
Just give them all to Fox Sports so fans can see them live and in HD, the way sport is meant to be watched.
8 games, can’t imagine in prime time?
The biggest thing will be, with this deal when it’s made, is how flexible it can be.
Remember, the NRL is looking to expand in the next few years: with many contenders (two SEQ consortiums (one Ipswich-based, the other proposing a second Brisbane-based side), Rockhampton, Perth and Gosford just to name a few) all wanting a piece or two of the pie, from the upcoming broadcast deal.
All broadcasters must plan for (and value the rights for) a eighteen-team NRL, in case the expansion goes ahead.
“After all the TEN board is full of billionaires”
Yes, and two of them have a stake in PMG / FOX Sports. I have little doubt TEN will acquire the rights and share games with FOX at mates rates.
So TEN gave up on a sport that has broader appeal across the country (AFL) for a sport that really only resonates in NSW and QLD… where’s the sense in that…? I can’t see it ever pulling bigger numbers for them than what AFL did…
@JB… given that even Melbourne with a team in the competition only gets a live NRL game on Nine every blue moon… I don’t think WIN will be playing live NRL into SA any time soon ever… sorry…
Lachlan Murdoch is destroying channel Ten. NRL will do nothing for their Perth and Adelaide stations where there are zero teams and barely be worth it for the Melbourne market.
NRL makes sense for Nine as the only owns the Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne stations.
Can’t see 3 of the 5 Ten stations being very impressed.
@ryaneco
I believe they would have more money than Nine at this point to get sole rights. After all the TEN board is full of billionaires at this point not to mention the money saved by not sharing the AFL with SEVEN.
I hope TEN get’s them all. It’ll be interesting if Nine can somehow scramble the cash, doubt it.
I don’t care who gets the rights, as long as us Mexicans can see free-to-air games live. I don’t expect GTV9 to screen the games, but they have two extra channels, there’s no excuse. But Nine seem to think the one millionth repeat of Police Academy 7 is more worthy!
A deal like the AFL has would be ideal.
The NRL should give the rights to a broadcaster who will try to grow the game in Melbourne. It’s in their and our best interests. Only die-hards will find the games after midnight.
I grew up with a diet of only AFL. It wasn’t until we got Foxtel that I was exposed to rugby league, and fell in love with the game. I’m sure there’s plenty of people outside of NSW and QLD who haven’t found the game yet. Give the rights to someone who respects the game and wants it to grow.
We might as well live in Antarctica.
Seven simply won’t be able to afford the rights to AFL and NRL surely.
I think it is highly likely for Nine to retain rights and maybe a game or two on TEN – Ten don’t have the money to have sole broadcast rights.
Nine are terrible with the League. I hope Seven get all/most of the rights. But if Ten do get all of the rights they better have it on the main channel and not One HD.
Would this mean One HD would return.Would love to have NBA back on FTA.
Having another fair-dinkum bidder will be music to the NRL’s ears as it aims to emmulate the deal engineered by the AFL. Ch10’s ratings have been woeful for years so this would be a perfect fit to get people across to their channel. But as Ch7 has shown, no one TV network can afford to show all games available without passing the cost on to other outlets like Fox. This is especially so for NRL as it doesn’t have as many ‘natural’ ad breaks as the AFL like the numerous goals and extra quarters.
It would be fantastic. It would be a huge boost to Channel 10 and instantly make One HD a credible sports channel once again. It would be completely devastating to Foxtel, and the entire Pay TV industry in general though as it would kill the subscription base in NSW and QLD. I can’t see Murdoch and Packer wanting to do that. I think Ten and Nine will both get two games a week each, Seven State Of Origin and Tests with Foxtel keeping 5 games a week of the NRL, which is what they have now, after the two team expansion happens.
@samwise: Thanks! Didn’t know any of that!
@deedeedragons,
voss has been relegated to third caller for this year. ray hadley has replaced him. friday nights will be rabs and ray hadley. voss will only commentate games on sunday when they are interstate or in new zealand.
i cant see how they can show all eight live, which no doubt the nrl will be pushing for.
If all games are shown live across the country I will love Ten having all games, but if they do like Nine did with having two live games on a Friday night so one was delayed depending on which state you lived, and the Sunday game being delayed for an hour for no reason what so ever. What Fox Footy and Seven are doing with the AFL is terrific and maybe a similar deal would be a better decision.
I would say the idea of having the NRL on 10 has been going on for a few months. For a number of months now I’ve seen a couple of second advert of someone wearing a light blue shirt (NSW?) making a try on a promo for ONE HD. There’s no connect to anything else other than the station.
Would the move to 10 of the NRL broadcast rights mean ONE HD would still be thought of as a sports channel, or has that idea been sent packing?
This is just good news. ONE could turn into a 24/7 dedicated FTA NRL channel showing all 8 NRL Games into Perth, with the Grand Final simulcast on TEN.
Good. I hope they win the rights. Wouldn’t mind Seven getting Origin too. I hvae no doubt they’d show it live on 7mate. Nine has treated NRL fans in SA like crap. Although i did check the EPG and Nine Adelaide are showing the World Club Challenge match live on Gem at 6.15am, so maybe that’s a sign they might actually show the NRL season live on Gem in Adelaide. Won’t hold my breath.
But i still hope Ten get the rights.
8 games? Not going to happen, but i’d be very happy with no Gould or Voss anymore.