Broncos TV ratings being used by Nine to push back NRL’s attempt to control draw
Chris Garry
The Sunday Mail (Qld)
July 19, 2015 12:00AM
THE Brisbane Broncos are at the centre of a television tug of war.
The Sunday Mail can reveal the Broncos, who are attracting sensational television ratings this year, are the prime reason Channel Nine is pushing back against the NRL’s attempts to control the draw.
The Broncos play their only afternoon home game today but if the NRL take draw control they will have several each season when the next broadcast deal starts in 2018.
The NRL wants to control the majority of scheduling in the next broadcast deal which will see teams featured equally across a five night roster each week, Thursday through Monday.
The Broncos celebrate a try against the Knights at Hunter Stadium. Picture by Peter Lorim
The Broncos celebrate a try against the Knights at Hunter Stadium. Picture by Peter Lorimer.
However the Broncos are a proven ratings winner for the Nine Network on Friday nights and the club would be the one most impacted by the NRL controlling the scheduling.
Brisbane’s domination of Fridays means teams such as North Queensland, Canberra, Newcastle and Melbourne are rarely featured in the slot that draws the most viewers alongside Thursday nights.
Currently, the draw is left to the Nine Network and Foxtel to fight over.
If the NRL controls scheduling they can ensure all teams are featured in the Friday night and Thursday night slots which is what club sponsors desire because their branding reaches more eye balls.
The schedule would be even until the final six rounds when the most attractive games would be slotted into the prime time free to air spots.
The NRL controlling scheduling would have mixed benefits for the Broncos.
The club is privately disappointed their two blockbuster against Melbourne in Round 26 scheduled for a Thursday night.
It could knock 10,000 people off their crowd.
However, the Broncos do present television ratings to prospective sponsors and the ratings for that Thursday game will be exceptional.
Nine, Channel Ten and Channel Seven are all negotiating for a slice of the NRL rights.
They could ask for a price reduction in order to hand over scheduling control.
One example of the disadvantage of an even allotment of Friday nights occurred in round 18.
The Canberra Raiders’ Friday night clash with Newcastle on Nine rated poorly, averaging just 403,000 viewers in capital cities.
The Broncos opening round clash with South Sydney on Thursday night attracted a capital city audience of 729,000 and more than one million viewers across Australia.
Broncos coach Wayne Bennett said yesterday that while ideally Brisbane would like more Sunday games there was little point fighting the networks.
“It excites me Sunday afternoon. Under daylight, dry conditions, it will be conducive to really good football,” Bennett said.
“The reality of the situation is that television has a huge amount of money involved and we can’t go back to how we used to know it with all the Sunday afternoon (games).
“There’s between five and seven games on at night across the weekend and that’s just the way it is.
“There’s nothing you can do about it.”
The Broncos will run as per program this afternoon against a Tigers team last on the ladder.
