And some people seem happy to be bent over and punished!
We are the biggest rating sport on tv, and pay tv make millions of dollars off rugby league. Why should we accept second best? Why should we be "fed second"? Fox sports 1 is the standard channel in pubs, gyms, clubs and the perception is that the biggest sport is shown on it! While not the biggest issue in the game, we should be getting little things like this right as well, especially as fumbleball has its own channel now!
Huh ? I've never noticed this "ranking" - they're all just treated as channels with no priority. If they have Fox Sports, pubs or clubs will just put the league ( or whatever sport you ask for ) on Fox Sports 1,2, 3 ( or free to air ) if it's not already on. This isn't just in one pub or club, it's the way things operate in any of them I've been to all over the country. ( some places do take a bit of effort, as some bar staff can't or aren't allowed to change channels if necessary and have to ask a supervisor to do it )
The majority of them have different tv's in sports bars / bigger bars to cover all 3 ( plus free-to-air channels ) or have different tv's in different parts of the pub/club to allow them to do this. To avoid problems, quite a few places will allocate certain sports to certain tv's and stick a sign under it listing what that tv is or will be showing, e.g. - this tv will be showing NRL or this tv will be showing Super Rugby etc ). A lot of the time people just find out which tv ( or tv's ) are showing what they want to see and stand or sit near there.
There are certain pubs/clubs that will give priority to "other sports" when people in that area are fans of them, e.g. - union, AFL or soccer in certain suburbs or specific pubs / clubs. A good example of this is Cheers bar in Sydney that is known for giving priority to soccer ( especially Premier League ). If there was a game on Saturday night with an early kickoff ( say 10pm ), it would receive priority over the 3rd NRL game of Super Saturday. ( i.e. - the NRL would not be shown on the biggest screens or most screens, but still be available )
Another example of this was when the RWC was on, quite a few places gave priority to it, especially when the Wallabies or certain teams were on. Some places even had a dedicated tv or tv's that stayed on the Fox Sports channel ( can't remember which one ) that was all rugby union 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during the RWC.
When the Olympics are on this year, similar things will occur.
