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NZRL and Sky sign 4 year deal

ozbash

Referee
Messages
26,922
The New Zealand Rugby League and Sky Television today announced they had signed a four-year contract, one of the longest in the NZRL’s history.


Chief executive Jim Doyle said the NZRL was delighted terms had been reached on such a significant broadcasting agreement.


“It’s exciting for the game in this country that we’ve been able to sign up such a long-term partnership with Sky Television,” he said.


“This gives us a great platform to plan for the future and develop an on-going relationship with Sky.


“The Kiwis’ success at the Rugby League World Cup last year gave the game a wonderful boost in New Zealand and this arrangement with Sky can only help us to give the sport even greater exposure.”


Richard Last, Sky Television’s director of sport content and new media, said the network was thrilled it was now able to work with the NZRL on a long-term basis.


“Rugby league ranks as one of the most popular sports with our subscribers and we welcome becoming the official home to the Kiwis for the next four years,” he said.


“They’ve given us much to celebrate in recent years especially the World Cup final, one of our highest-rating programmes last year.”


Doyle said the contract would see Sky covering the Kiwis’ internationals for the next four years starting with the one-off test against Tonga at the International Stadium in Rotorua on October 14 followed by the inaugural Gillette Four Nations series in England and France.


The Kiwis’ first match in that tournament is against Australia in London on October 24 followed by France in Toulouse on October 31 and England in Huddersfield on November 7. If New Zealand finishes first or second among the four teams, it will play in the final at Elland Road in Leeds on November 14.


“The broadcasting contract also takes in the annual Anzac Test against Australia and, as well as that, Sky will cover the semi-finals and final in our Bartercard National Provincial Premiership,” said Doyle.


The NPP, starting this weekend, is contested by six provinces – Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, Wellington and Canterbury – at senior under-18 and under-16 level.

NZRL media
 

Micistm

Bench
Messages
4,470
Sign 'o the times, Lol, obviously I'm a bit biased against sky in that they sew up every sporting thing going (And apparently according to critics on radio sport if you can't afford sky it's your own fault for being a chain smoking alcoholic) and then charge stupid amounts for a sh*tload of channels you don't want just to get a few you do...but modern times and the way it goes. And if all League is going to go on sky I will have to bite the bullet and get it, but feel sorry for Maori TV if they're losing their local stuff.
I hope NZRL is getting some good coin from the deal to build the game-Otherwise IMO it would be better to get the Local League organised with TVNZ or TV3, one of the main free to air channels. With the lack of free sports it might've got some good exposure from those channels.
But overall, not overly surprised or overly bothered with it.
 

Rich102

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
11,764
If it leads to more local league on TV then it has to be a good thing.
 

Drzoidberg

Juniors
Messages
1,135
yeah hard, the fox matches in weekends on maori tv are pretty good to watch, better quality than Bartercard
 

Penrose Warrior

First Grade
Messages
9,478
I'm all for change - even though I don't ever listen to them - but any suggestion of change should have a new contingency plan. Who else would get behind the mic?

Apart from Barnett (admittedly I've never heard him commentate) the rest of them are very average, and that's being nice. Allen Mac ain't coming from Radio Sport and I can't think of any others.
 

ozenzud

Juniors
Messages
699
That is very interesting that Sky is taking the NPC. I know Maori television paid not much for this in the past. Wonder how much they paid? Will they promote the comp? Will it give NZRL a bit of dough to promote it?

Its been hard work promoting that comp in NZ. Few years back we managed to get reasonable coverage in Wellington and on Newstalk ZB, but really we had to do all the work to promote ourselves. Journalists weren't chasing us!
 

MKEB...

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
5,988
I'm all for change - even though I don't ever listen to them - but any suggestion of change should have a new contingency plan. Who else would get behind the mic?

Apart from Barnett (admittedly I've never heard him commentate) the rest of them are very average, and that's being nice. Allen Mac ain't coming from Radio Sport and I can't think of any others.

Dale Husband aint too bad a commentator, hell even Laban aint too bad a commentator
 

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