Channel 9 not keen on going live for Melbourne Storm's blockbusters or any NRL finals

[Billythekid]

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Wide World of Sports Audiences for the finals last week - aside from the Melbourne game - were incredibly low in Melbourne. Even the live Storm game got a very small audience compared to all other AFL matches. As you're obviously a Tigers fan we can appreciate your being annoyed at this situation, however from a business perspective the team in programming can't see tonight's live broadcast as a viable option into Melbourne.

See the spin? Why are they even comparing NRL Melbourne figures to AFL Melbourne figures. The comparison should be Melbourne NRL figures compared to what would normally be shown in that timeslot.

If you will only show stuff that rates higher than the AFL than you might as well not broadcast anything against the AFL finals.

These comments make me sick, someone high up in the game needs to speak up. No wonder this keeps happening when no one is willing to stand up for the game (not even the CEO). They will just let 9 spread this FUD.

 

[carlosthedwarf]

Even more proof that Nine care only about what the other networks are doing and not what they're doing themselves.

 

[big_matt]

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Wide World of Sports Audiences for the finals last week - aside from the Melbourne game - were incredibly low in Melbourne. Even the live Storm game got a very small audience compared to all other AFL matches. As you're obviously a Tigers fan we can appreciate your being annoyed at this situation, however from a business perspective the team in programming can't see tonight's live broadcast as a viable option into Melbourne.

OK - but how do they think the audiences for NRL will get larger if it is never shown? I sometimes wonder if the executives at 9 have a brain. As long as they win the ratings for that particular week there is no broader strategy for sport or forward planning.

If there was a NFL-mad city in America where they didn't show baseball for 10 years then suddenly showed a baseball game up against NFL games would they expect a bigger audience than the NFL games? Of course they wouldn't! But 9 can't understand why when they show one game a year there isn't huge numbers for it.

In summary, 9 have shown for most of a decade that they have no interest whatsoever in growing our game outside NSW/QLD and that is not acceptable for the upcoming broadcast partner. I work in business strategy and for this new contract I'd have mandatory questions in the tender like 'demonstrate clearly where you have shown an ability to promote and grow a sport in new markets, including specific examples.'

I'm really worried the new contract will be more of the same though. In fact I'm convinced it will be.

The most frustrating this is that 9 are not only not showing the games in other states, they are actively stopping others from doing so because they hold the rights. So they are not just stopping the game from growing, they are actually putting it backwards.

 

[typicalfan]

I agree, you have to create a base of TV supporters and a base of supporters that go to the game. The support for the Storm is small everyone would be happy to accept that as the truth, some people going to the game each week isn't financially viable.

Creating a habit of watching these games would be ideal. Even if the initial support is only 80-100k a week. The idea is if development in Victoria becomes stronger, kids will want to at least watch their stars. Melbourne has to act soon. They have two of the better players to ever play the game in Slater and Smith and while they are there they should be marketable.

 

[Billythekid]

OK - but how do they think the audiences for NRL will get larger if it is never shown? I sometimes wonder if the executives at 9 have a brain. As long as they win the ratings for that particular week there is no broader strategy for sport or forward planning.

The thing is they lose the ratings every week. They're not even close to seven and decisions like this are a big part of the reason why.

If you piss off a major portion of your audience it will affect your ratings.

 

[Mr Twig]

The most frustrating this is that 9 are not only not showing the games in other states, they are actively stopping others from doing so because they hold the rights. So they are not just stopping the game from growing, they are actually putting it backwards.

Nine would have to pay to offload NRL rights to other networks/Foxtel(in AFL states). NRL rights in AFL states are worth 0.

 

[big_matt]

Nine would have to pay to offload NRL rights to other networks/Foxtel(in AFL states). NRL rights in AFL states are worth 0.

YEa - I just meant if 9 didn't have rights for Melb in the first place (for example) then other networks could have come along and at least put some effort in. They put the right to show games Australia-wide into the original contract presumably, and then chose not to show games in most of the states.

For me, the silence coming from Gallop on this is deafening. The official broadcast partner of a sport he is in charge of growing are actively stopping the game from being grown, and he doesn't seem prepared to say a single thing about it.

I don't expect him to come out and tear strips off 9, but he'd be entitled to comment that it would have been nice for manly/melb etc to have been shown in Victoria.

 

[Brutus]

OK - but how do they think the audiences for NRL will get larger if it is never shown? .

And this is where it's up to the leaders of our game to grow a spine and write these things into the tv contracts.

 

[typicalfan]

Don't worry some people struggle with the concept of investment. If you want to invest in Melbourne then go all the way.

 

[El Diablo]

how bad are WWOS

they start wanking on about AFL at every opportunity

Wayne Harris
You can't tell me tonight's warriors game wouldn't have got the numbers here in Vic!. What a thriller!

their reply

Wide World of Sports It was a thriller. The Hawks game looks like it could have a good finish too so those tuning in after the AFL should have a good night. What were your thoughts on the Inu try? Brilliance or just sheer luck?

why in f**ks name start telling people to watch the AFL?

he was talking to them about RL

f**k 9 off

 

[Brutus]

I've just got back from the beach in my mate's car. Of course he had Ray on.

Hadley was bagging the absolute crap out of the Melbourne Storm ratings in Melbourne from last Sunday and said he fully understands why 9 never show them.

He then went on to say the Swans do far better on TV in Sydney and he can see why they are shown.:crazy:

This was followed by a conversation on knitting.

 

[Tigger Madness]

Ray Hadley is pushing the afl barrow on the cct saying that nrl will never rate in Melbourne against the afl. He read out the ratings for last weeks game and totally failed to make a relevant comparison. Also said that the afl rates better in syd than nrl melb.

 

[Flapper]

I sent him an email regarding the truth in regards to why Melbournes ratings are so low. I recommend everyone dirties their soul and does the same until he reads out the truth.

 

[CC_Roosters]

I sent him an email regarding the truth in regards to why Melbournes ratings are so low. I recommend everyone dirties their soul and does the same until he reads out the truth.

I have already. Do 2GB have anything to do with 9?

I regularly listen to the show but i didn't hear this as only turned it on a few minutes ago.

 

[Tigger Madness]

We need el d to ring the open line.

 

[typicalfan]

The Melbourne ratings weren't much different to the Swans ratings during the year were they?

Maybe horsehead could read out the season average for the Swans lol.

 

[STORM.99/07]

Yes the Storm fans were right I am a weak Tosser

 

[El Diablo]

Another place to comment seeing WWOS delete and ban people http://www.facebook.com/GEMChannel

 

[docbrown]

The Storm will play to win the crowds

Daniel Lane

September 18, 2011

MELBOURNE Storm chief executive Ron Gauci has revealed he advised television executives his club was prepared to play on Saturday afternoons next year if it would help build a stronger audience.
The Storm's offer came after last weekend's ratings showed - at a time when ratings were considered the game's billion-dollar resource - only 86,000 Melburnians tuned in to the live free-to-air telecast of the Storm and Knights qualifying final last Sunday.
Those ratings, which came after Channel Nine decided late in the week to screen the game live, provided extra ammunition for the critics who believe there should be a team in a traditional rugby league area, such as Gosford or Ipswich, ahead of the Victorian capital.
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That's despite the Storm going great guns on the field heading into a Saturday night home preliminary final against the Warriors this week.
Gauci says Melbourne is prepared to do whatever is necessary to build a strong television audience in Melbourne, even if it meant showcasing superstars Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk on league's long-defunct Saturday afternoon timeslot. ''From our perspective we were prepared to work with [Nine and Fox],'' he said. ''One of the slots we discussed was the Saturday and it's something we're prepared to look at. We have an exciting product, we're an exciting club and all we want is support from the broadcasters and the game in general to build up that audience.''
Gauci said one of the greatest drawbacks in developing a free-to-air television audience in AFL-mad Melbourne was not having a consistent timeslot. ''We haven't said the games necessarily need to be live,'' he said. ''But if we could have our games shown in Melbourne at a regular time on a regular basis we'll build up an audience over time.
''[In the case of last weekend] the game was televised with very little announcement of the timeslot. We believe our supporters, and lovers of sports in general, need to know where to find us and when to find us, so they'll get a regular dose of sport at a consistent time.
''We do that, there's no question we'll get a following. I have had a number of conversations with both the broadcasters and said to them the Storm would be quite flexible when we played and when the game was broadcast if it helped develop their television audience.''
NRL chief executive David Gallop said Melbourne remained of strategic importance in selling the game to TV executives. ''Melbourne plays a really important role in the game's blueprint,'' Gallop said.
''More than half the population of Australia lives in New South Wales and Queensland and rugby league dominates there. Melbourne is the second biggest city in the country and there are a lot of people there who love sport and who are prepared to get behind the game.''



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/rugby-leag...-the-crowds-20110917-1kf7h.html#ixzz1YGIo9lIJ

 

[Perth Red]

What a surprise a negative article. they could have got 300k and they would have still talked it down. 86k is a decent starting point, put the games on at a decent time every week and try advertising them and we might see the games get nearer the 400k that tuned in for the NRL GF a couple of years ago!