Channel Nine to finally show Sunday NRL live, but daylight saving duds Queensland
Chris Garry
The Courier-Mail
November 12, 2014 12:00AM
SPORT fans in Queensland will be forced to continue living in television’s dark ages with NRL and cricket games to be broadcast live everywhere except the Sunshine State.
Sunday NRL games will finally be shown live on Channel 9 next year but the state most passionate about the sport, Queensland, will have to endure delayed broadcasts because of daylight saving.
Daylight saving will impact the first month of the 2015 NRL season, so while every other city in Australia watches live NRL, Queenslanders must ignore social media and watch triple the amount of advertisements.
Queensland will also have to watch delayed Big Bash cricket this summer.
Channel 10 are still working out the draw but it is understood some games will be delayed into Queensland to fit around their news broadcast.
Channel 9 declined to comment on Tuesday when asked if the new Sunday live broadcast would still be delayed into Queensland, stating they were finalising arrangements with the NRL.
However, the station’s director of sport Steve Crawley said earlier in the week the station wanted to schedule Sunday games live from 4pm as a lead-in to their news.
The 6pm news means Queenslanders are also likely to watch the match from 4pm, but due to daylight saving, the second half would have already kicked off by the time the game starts in the Sunshine State.
Previously, free to air Sunday games kicked off at 3pm and were shown delayed from 4pm but a public backlash has forced a rethink from both the NRL and Channel 9.
Sunday night news is key in the ratings battle and using NRL games as a lead-in helps Nine regularly win the viewership war.
Queenslanders were forced to watch Australia’s must-win Four Nations clash with Samoa last Sunday on delay to preserve the news broadcast at 6pm - and the viewing figures proved eyeballs wandered elsewhere.
The delayed Samoa clash attracted just 167,000 viewers in Brisbane while the live match between Australia and England a week earlier attracted 196,000 viewers.
Channel 10 are expected to screen Big Bash games on half-hour delays in the Sunshine State to fit their news in.
The Big Bash has increased its prime time fixtures this season.
Cricket Australia scheduled 34 of 35 matches to be played at night – four more than last season.
