NRL final on delay as Nine reneges
By Dean Ritchie | September 17, 2008 12:00am
CHANNEL 9 has reneged on a concrete contract to telecast all finals matches live - because NRL chief executive David Gallop would not agree to a television double-header.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal Gallop held high-level discussions with Nine CEO David Gyngell last Sunday night about match scheduling for this weekend.
Gyngell told Gallop his network would not telecast a Friday night game live from Auckland at the peak ratings time of 6.30pm in Sydney.
The Nine boss suggested both matches this weekend be played on Saturday and shown live - Warriors-Roosters at Mt Smart at 6.30pm (Sydney time) and then Brisbane-Melbourne at Suncorp Stadium at 8.30pm.
Gallop, though, stood his ground and kept the Friday evening match.
The NRL-Nine contract states all finals games must be shown live - but Nine claims precedents have previously been set, including last year, about delayed telecasts.
It was Nine's decision to show the game on delay, angering rugby league fans who fear they will hear the result before the telecast on radio or through the internet.
Warriors v Roosters will now be shown at 7.30pm after A Current Affair and Two And A Half Men.
Nine sources claim the 7.30pm timeslot would rate significantly higher than 6.30pm because fans will have arrived home from work.
With A Current Affair not telecast on weekends, Gyngell suggested the back-to-back games on Saturday.
"The idea (of both matches being played on Saturday) was floated and we considered it," Gallop said last night. "But it was too late to go chopping and changing the schedule around.
"One aspect of the McIntyre System is the sequence of matches.
"We didn't feel it right to go changing that after we published it all year."
Sources claim back-to-back Saturday games would attract a Sydney audience of 600,000 - the Friday night delayed game to draw between 450,000 and 500,000 people.
"We get irritated he (Gallop) doesn't listen," a Nine source said.
Asked was he disappointed at no live league on Friday evening, Gallop said: "Not necessarily.
"It will give more people the opportunity to watch the game.
"It's just a quirk of having a game played in New Zealand."
Gyngell also suggested a 6pm kick-off in Auckland on Sunday - live coverage in Sydney from 4pm.
But Gallop again refused.
Gyngell would not comment yesterday but Roosters chief executive Brian Canavan said his club would happily have moved their game to the weekend.
"It wouldn't have particularly worried us, not at all," Canavan said.
Asked about the live TV blackout, Canavan said: "Our fans are used to live footy for the majority of matches so, from that point of view, I can understand their disappointment. They are conditioned to live footy."
As the Roosters take on the Warriors in New Zealand, Channel Nine will be showing Charlie Sheen instead. / The Daily Telegraph
