NRL investigating games over 3 X 30 minute periods

[Pigskin]

Crap Idea!

2 x 30mins would be good, or 4 x 15mins. 90 minutes of footy is too long.

Which to flame, its all about choice

Oink !

 

[Danish]

I wonder how the players are going to adapt to it??

The after game interviews would become a shemozzle:

"So you must be pretty impressed after that victory??"

"Yeah, well its a game of 3 halves... er... I mean...."

 

[Razor]

Excellent idea.

But the biggest idea talked about in that article is the split broadcasters - and not the bullsh*t way the AFL do it.

Have a schedule - sell the rights to Friday Night, Saturday Night, Sunday, Monday Night seperately.

And the Grand Final can rotate between the rights holders. The fta right holders can then on-sell the reply rights to pay TV stations.

 

[Lockyer4President!]

Love the idea of selling each gameday to the highest bidder rather than selling the whole season to one network.

 

[nadera78]

I know that the NRL and the vast majority of Australian RL fans believe that they are the only people who count when it comes to this great game of ours, but Rugby League is played in thirty-odd countries around the world. Some of them have been playing for over 100 years, some started just six months ago.

The NRL has no right to unilateraly change such a fundamental rule of the game without consulting everyone else within the game!

Do you want the NRL playing 90minutes because it suits their TV deal while the rest of the world continues to play 80? What about juniors and amateurs, do they switch as well?

And what would be the repercussions to the way the game is played? We already have too many big fellas who cannot last the full game and only come on for short bursts of activity, playing 3 x 30minutes with 2 breaks would only increase this situation. We need to re-introduce the stamina element of our game to allow more skillful players to ragian some influence, this change will do the opposite.

It's a bad idea. The truth is, if the NRL was getting the TV deal it deserves we wouldn't need any of these stupid gimmicks.

 

[nadera78]

Excellent idea.

But the biggest idea talked about in that article is the split broadcasters - and not the bullsh*t way the AFL do it.

Have a schedule - sell the rights to Friday Night, Saturday Night, Sunday, Monday Night seperately.

And the Grand Final can rotate between the rights holders. The fta right holders can then on-sell the reply rights to pay TV stations.

Selling the rights seperately is a great idea. With the Grand Final there is no need to rotate it, simply put it up for auction and whichever fta broadcaster bids the most gets it. Make them fight for it and get the best price.

 

[_Johnsy]

why change the very fabric of our game (2 x 40 min) because a few people are death riding our sport ?

It has held up through much adversity for 100 years, and it will do the same through another 100.

 

[Dragonwest]

Get rid of the toss and let the home team pick which way they want to run. That would give the home team a real advantage of playing at home.

Away team should be made to run on one leg, home team to do a sit up before being allowed to play the ball.

Playing 3rds is a geniused idea, it has to be halves or quarters for fairness.

 

[Quidgybo]

If the games are going to be 10 mins longer (12.5%) , are the players and the salary cap going to get a 12.5% payrise ?

How would you feel if you had to work an extra 12.5% per week of hours with no increase in pay. I hope they are considering that too.

Which is perfectly logical. And applying similar logic, you'd expect that if the Players Association gets its way and the NRL shortens the season to reduce wear and tear - say to 20 rounds instead of 24+byes - then you'd expect the players to take an immediate 17.7% pay cut across the board because they're playing fewer games. But somehow I don't think they'll accept that. They'll expect the clubs to pay them the same while bringing in less revenue from fewer home games (which is exactly why it hasn't happened yet). So as far as a pay bump for extending the length of games, I'm of the opinion that what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Leigh.

 

[ocko]

there needs to be greater fta rights competition

pay-tv is fine

2 40-min halves are fine

 

[Quidgybo]

Love the idea of selling each gameday to the highest bidder rather than selling the whole season to one network.

So would I. Personally I'd love to see five separate packages...

* Friday night double header (for Free To Air television)
* Saturday night double header (for FTA)
* Sunday afternoon live triple header (for Subscription television)
* Sunday night match of the day 90 min replay (for FTA)
* Monday night match (for Subscription television)

One of the major considerations I'm bearing in mind when I suggest this division is the fact that the difference between Rugby League ratings on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons for Fox are not substantially different. For any particular match Fox is able to draw a good audience (by subscription television standards) regardless of which timeslot it is played in. On the other hand, while Nein is extremely happy with their Friday night double header ratings, they are less so with their Sunday afternoon replay leading into the News and their Sunday night primetime - especially for a product that costs them so much to buy. For FTA television, prime time slots are substantially more valuable.

Un my opinion the best outcome for the game (assuming the current distribution of AFL rights) would be to have Nein keep the Friday night double-header (in competition to the AFL on Seven); have Seven take up the Saturday night double-header (in competition to the AFL on Ten); and have Ten take up the 90min match of the day Sunday night replay in a return to the arrangement of the late 1980s. Ideally the Sunday night replay would be able to screen any one of the three games played that day in any particular region. So allowing Ten in Canberra to show the Raiders game, while Ten in Sydney show a Souths game etc.

That'd still leave Fox an exclusive triple header on Sunday afternoons which would be the only place the public could see all three games and see them all live. And it'd set up the possibility of some competitive bidding for Monday night games between Fox and other subscription television players Setanta and ESPN (incidentally also the host network for the NFL's Monday Night Football). As a package to help a foreign sports network increase their presence in the Australian market, a single standalone game would be relatively attractive investment without having to dive in with a huge build up in local production capacity.

Of course, while News Ltd hold a veto on the NRL board it'll be mighty hard to get any agreement on selling packages like this.

Leigh.

 

[sting]

i think saturday definately belongs on Fox. It does really well on there and plus alot of people are out saturday night, watching the game at the pub, etc. FTA always puts family movies and stuff on cause they're the people home on a saturday night generally

 

[Quidgybo]

The idea of four quarters to fit more ads in is nothing new. They did it in the early 70s in the Amco Cup.

Well to be honest, we already do play four quarters in selected games now. We call it a "drinks break" due to extreme weather but in reality it's just a quarter time break in the NFL tradition. No new kick off, change of possession or change in (relative) field position. Just break for two or three minutes, have a drink, listen to the coach and play a few ads. And then get on with the next play the ball, scrum, tap or whatever. Personally, I'd have no problem extending this across the entire competition - don't have a formal 20 min clock for each quarter but at the first break in play after 19 mins in each half, have a drinks break and let television play their ads. And then continue right where the game left off.

Leigh.

 

[Quidgybo]

i think saturday definately belongs on Fox. It does really well on there and plus alot of people are out saturday night, watching the game at the pub, etc. FTA always puts family movies and stuff on cause they're the people home on a saturday night generally

Tell that to Ten's Saturday night AFL coverage which, minor states aside, seems to do quite well in that game's traditional markets. Why wouldn't Rugby League be equally valuable to a FTA broadcaster in NSW and QLD on Saturday nights? Of course it would. It's not that the FTA broadcasters aren't interested in screening Saturday night games, but rather that they've effectively been locked out by the Fox/News/NRL cartel to this point - to the ultimate harm of the game in reaching a bigger audience.

Leigh.