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Report: NRL deal looking at 5 nights a week

Early speculation on the next NRL deal suggests TEN could win a match each week.

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NRL could be staged games five nights a week, according to media reports, with TEN a potential beneficiary of an expanded broadcasting deal.

The Sydney Morning Herald speculates that NRL could deliver a game to TEN on Thursday night, a Nine game on Friday night, three FOX Sports games on Saturday, two Nine games on Sunday and a FOX Sports Monday night game.

But a deal that would see FOX Sports surrender one game to TEN won’t come without demands, such as a simulcast of all eight NRL games, as it currently does with AFL and Seven.

Global Media and Sport’s Colin Smith said: “The risks would be too great to surrender additional coverage to either of the other free-to-air incumbents. If Nine had more exclusive NRL or Seven had more exclusive AFL, Foxtel would lose subscribers, which is exactly what they must avoid.

“Foxtel / FOX Sports passing over one game per code to TEN in its weakened position, both in terms of TV ratings and financial performance, would be far less detrimental, especially if it is simulcast.

“These will be the richest rights ever for both codes, but also the most complicated. If the ACCC do not approve News Corporation’s investment in TEN, there may be no TEN.”

But the article also gives little analysis on aggressive bids that will be coming from Nine and Seven.

The NRL’s next TV deal will begin in 2018. Expect a lot more speculation before then.

  • Tagged with NRL

7 Responses

  1. Having NRL on a Thursday night on FTA would be a mix up due to the fact that there might be other reality shows on that night. Note that there might be a few AFL games clashing with NRL on a Thursday night. I would rather prefer 4 matches live on FTA – 2 Friday, 1 Saturday and 1 Sunday. The rest of the RL matches will be on Fox.

  2. AFL fan here, rare watcher of NRL. Why should foxtels life be made an easier in regards to sports coverage? They have way too much power. In terms of AFL I think it should be 5 live games on free to air and 4 games available on foxtel. Having less on free to air than foxtel just doesn’t seem right. Hey in a perfect world all nine afl games would be on free to air giving viewers choice.

  3. Not a fan of weekday games – footy more of a weekend thing for us – even when one of our teams are playing Monday night we more than often don’t watch other than to check in on the score. Same with the few times there have been Thursday games.

    However the deal ends up – by 2018 surely FTA would be airing HD anyway for sport (although I remember thinking in 2008 how good it was to have footy in HD) – and every game should be live…

    With Foxtel and AFL they play and air two games at once so why can’t NRL rather than reaching into weekdays? Surely for the game and attendance, weekend games are better?

  4. I’m all for Foxtel simulcasting any games on 9 or 10. At least the games would be in HD that way. An Origin simulcast also sounds great!

    And if Foxtel can get it’s hands on simulcasting 9’s cricket coverage, and the NBL rights, then Foxtel would be covering all major Australian sporting codes.

    If the FTA networks don’t want to do sports properly, Foxtel should be allowed to. The F1 and V8’s look great now they are on Fox Sports.

  5. One thing I’ve never understood is why the anti siphoning rules allowed for 4 ARL games per week, but only 3 NRL games, when both comps have 8 games per round. Simulcasting the games on Fox would be an excellent idea. It means that those with an HD access ticket can watch the games live, and Qld and NSW viewers will be able to see the alternate game live too.

    Currently you have to live in New Zealand to see both Friday night games live.

    1. As far as I know neither the Broadcasting Services Act nor the anti-siphoning regulations/list have any restrictions like that – they’re likely entirely due to whatever deals the broadcasters have done with the ARL/NRL.

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