Pre-season trials: The NRL is losing money

[muzby]

Name 1 major sport that doesn't have pre season trials?

Big Bash League.

 

[AlwaysGreen]

I like the idea of clubs streaming their trials. Why not make them pay for view? If a club sets it up than they can charge fans a fee to watch them or maybe even make it part of a membership that you get free access to the streaming.

Nothing fancy, just a camera or two.

 

[steggz]

Big Bash League.

Wrong. Sydney Thunder had trials against Hong Kong and Bangladesh, as well as a tour to Christchurch

 

[insert.pause]

Apparently Nine claims to own the rights to all pre-season games, existing and otherwise.

Why blackout on NRL pre-season is corporate red tape at its worst

Steve Mascord
In the world of sports rights, warehousing is never a good sign. Warehousing, in this sense, is where a broadcaster owns the rights to something and does not show it – but prevents others from showing it instead.

The practice is indicative of an arrangement where the broadcaster has an upper hand because the sport needs it more than vice versa. The fans suffer from a cuckold type situation, the sport a prisoner to its own poorly-conceived contractual fine print.

Recent examples in rugby league include Channel Nine putting the Sunday afternoon game on one-hour delay and 2GB buying the rights to 7.30pm Saturday games a few years ago and not calling them.

This is a bad sign for a sport because it indicates the product is popular enough to covet, but individual events are not profitable enough to broadcast.

Now, Sunday afternoon matches are live on Nine. And the games that were not previously in HD, will be.

The new battleground, the new home of warehousing – a great scourge of all fans – is the pre-season.

Last year, in concert with Alby Talarico of radiohub.com.au, I wrote to a number of clubs about streaming (audio or video) their pre-season games. There was little or no money to be made on my part, I just love technology and wanted to be involved.

It is more fun to be an outsider than part of the establishment, after all. A number of the clubs got back to me, asking how much it would cost, how would it work, etc.

Then, there was a meeting at League Central and all went quiet. I heard Telstra had told the NRL it owned the rights to the entire pre-season as well as the club network and would not permit it.

Melbourne, bless their cotton socks, have shown during the past couple of years they don't fall for this and have streamed trials from AAMI Park anyway.

Now, even though the new TV deal has not kicked in yet, the clubs have reportedly been told that Nine owns the rights but won't use them.

The story keeps changing.

One interpretation a contact took from a close look at the agreements was that the broadcasters owned the things they were showing – Charity Shield, All Stars, Nines etc – and any rights they had to the rest of the pre-season were ambiguous at best.

I've not seen the contracts. I don't know what the actual situation is.

But it is absolutely bonkers that Latvia and Spain and Super League pre-season games can be viewed on the internet but NRL squads worth millions of dollars play in front of a few thousand people with radio and video blacked out.

It is corporate red tape at its worst – far more backward than delayed telecasts and normal definition for regular season games.

These broadcasts can be leveraged to drive membership. You can only watch the trial if you buy a season ticket before kick-off. They can drive traffic to websites and sell sponsorships.

The only legitimate reason for not showing them are in some cases logistical, or because those who could bring them to us cannot be arsed.

The games themselves? They should never be played in a club's home market polluting an already severely depleted demand for tickets during the course of a year. We should be negotiating venues as a sport and leveraging negotiations. You want a comp game, first see how you go with a trial. This is the charge.

Every game should count for something. The IP of the NRL and its clubs is bankable. Why aren't we banking it?

Personally, until the rights mess is sorted out I would throw the pre-season open to the bloggers, streamers, podcasters and internet radio stations. These people cover the game all year for free.

Let them experiment with new technologies, perhaps providing their content to clubs as part of the deal.

Trainspotters and anoraks do a lot for rugby league and their influence will grow as that of technology grows.

Instead of telling them there is no room in the press box or their audience is too small, embrace them by giving them their time in the sun.

Namely, February.

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...te-red-tape-at-its-worst-20160109-gm2m0x.html

 

[adamkungl]

Mascord's on the right track. We don't need a pre-season comp but broadcasting blackouts are ridiculous.

I don't see how Nine can own the rights to an unscheduled, made up as it goes pre-season anyway. Let clubs show their games if they wish.

 

[DiegoNT]

Match fitness means being able to withstand however many minutes you are expected to play each game of the season. Stamina is not always an integral part of trials and if it is those players who undergo the full torment are just adding another game to their season

Instead of pre-season trials why not play 30 rounds, each team plays each other twice . . . the coach can rest players that can't handle the truth in mid season games

Your mixing fitness vs match fitness. Match fitness isn't about being able to handle X amount of minute, it's being able to handle the rigours of a real game. It's Forwards taking real tackles from real opponents.it's second rowers & Centres hitting holes and lines and being able to catch a pass right on the line with defenders on them. It's halves taking it to the line and copping a real hit, kicking under pressure and being put on their ass every time. It's fullbacks & wingers catching real bombs under real pressure with real defenders bearing down on them. It's tackling a real attacking player and getting your timing in tackles right. It's all these little things that just can't be re-created in a training session no matter how much leeway a coach gives in opposed sessions. That's the match fitness that trials provide. And for experinced star players, especially the ones who played rep footy deep into the off season they don't need as much. Often a half of footy in the pre season is enough.

 

[insert.pause]

Mascord's on the right track. We don't need a pre-season comp but broadcasting blackouts are ridiculous.

I don't see how Nine can own the rights to an unscheduled, made up as it goes pre-season anyway. Let clubs show their games if they wish.

It doesn't have to be a competition, but create formality around the pre-season in a similar vein to the charity shield.

The demand exists, those games that have been broadcast by foxsports have rated well, some even favourably with regular season games. Clubs are aware of the demand for it with games increasingly being streamed online, as recently as the Broncos vs Sharks trial at Redcliffe last week.

Even if the broadcast rights can't be monetised clubs would still benefit from the increased exposure for their sponsors. Why give free air to other sports when we have games being played anyway?

 

[dangerousdave]

Because they're bullshit games. People whinge about weakened teams at origin time and the generally poor standard of games across 25 or 26 weeks. Running half arsed pre season games on tv would hardly promote the main comp. It would put people off if anything. And if clubs started actually fielding full strength teams the elite players will be playing even more games, which is asking for trouble.

The pre-season offers at least some morsels of product that are different to NRL teams playing each other week in week out. The Nines, WCC and All Stars could be improved on but I'd rather see them than more NRL teams playing standard games, except worse because the best players don't play.

If the NRL wants to leverage more money or create more tv content, expand the f**king comp, not the season.

I don't think that the OP was suggesting that pre-season games could be sold for as much as the regular season.

Yeah, they're shit quality, Mickey Mouse games. While they may not appeal to the casual fan, there's plenty more hardened fans who would watch out of football starvation, curiosity, seeing the young guys in the 13 aside game etc. Where there's a market, there's money.

So I'd go a step further. f**k a revamped preseason comp. Just sell a no-frills broadcast of some existing trials. Or broadcast them free on NRL.com jam packed with ads.

 

[Perth Red]

My English club has its own web channel and broadcasts every home game, highlights same day, full game day later. Costs me about $80 a year, great value.

 

[Danish]

If channel 9 want to argue that the preseason is a part of their NRL season proper contract, then wouldn't the "use it or lose it" rules apply that stop networks from buying up the rights to sports on the anti-siphoning list then not showing them?

There is no reason why NRL clubs shouldn't be allowed to directly broadcast what are effectively just organised joint training sessions. Would love to see NRL clubs all offering exclusive viewing of trial match footage to their members. Even just a single handheld camera run by a bloke in a cherry picker and broadcasting on a private facebook live or youtube live event would be sufficient. Would cost peanuts too.


To add to this, why don't the NRL approach facebook and youtube to see if they'd be interested in covering the basic costs to livestream the lower grades too? Again, just make it basic single camera wide shot stuff. Don't need the channel 9 treatment of 27 different camera angles each set. Might only set them back $1000 in costs per game that way meaning very minimal amounts of views in order to make it cost effective, and given the push to livestreaming both these companies are making in 2017 I'm sure they'd get on board.

 

[POPEYE]

Your mixing fitness vs match fitness. Match fitness isn't about being able to handle X amount of minute, it's being able to handle the rigours of a real game. It's Forwards taking real tackles from real opponents.it's second rowers & Centres hitting holes and lines and being able to catch a pass right on the line with defenders on them. It's halves taking it to the line and copping a real hit, kicking under pressure and being put on their ass every time. It's fullbacks & wingers catching real bombs under real pressure with real defenders bearing down on them. It's tackling a real attacking player and getting your timing in tackles right. It's all these little things that just can't be re-created in a training session no matter how much leeway a coach gives in opposed sessions. That's the match fitness that trials provide. And for experinced star players, especially the ones who played rep footy deep into the off season they don't need as much. Often a half of footy in the pre season is enough.

Sorry ol' mate, taking the piss is what I was doing . . . what you say can probably be vindicated. A coach can also use trials as a Claytons 'give a bloke a go', keep him interested enough in case he's needed later on in the season. Shit, everyone can't play every game but we can't have them going mental walkabout

 

[muzby]

Wrong. Sydney Thunder had trials against Hong Kong and Bangladesh, as well as a tour to Christchurch

That's one team.. not the competition

 

[KeepingTheFaith]

All the BBL sides had warm up games.

 

[siv]

tooheys challenge pre-season cup.

bring it back.

now that's a team!

and back in the day where if you didn't have a big f**king mustache, you couldn't be a f**king coach.

Now are the Dragons fans claiming this trophy as theirs ?

 

[siv]

tooheys challenge pre-season cup.

bring it back.

now that's a team!

and back in the day where if you didn't have a big f**king mustache, you couldn't be a f**king coach.

Now are the Dragons fans claiming this trophy as theirs ?

 

[siv]

Hete is my option for pre-season and mid week cup

I would like to see a 32 team knockout

Where 3 knockout rounds are played in Feb wk1/2/3

Where teams are drawn out of a hat

Where the other 16 teams come from NSW Cup top 4 Qld Cup Top 4 NZ winner and PNG/Fiji winner

With teams like Souths, St George getting a first round bye and premiers 1st and 2nd round due to WCC

Then play Semi-Finals and Final around SOO period maybe on Thu

 

[Perth Red]

4 conference 4 clubs
Play each team inyour conf, ideally at neutral country or inter state venues
Top team from each conf goes into semis
Final the weekend before round 1

play the games on a night, call it the floodlight trophy or similiar

Or don't bother and stick with current mish mash crop of
Nines
Shield
All stars
WCC
Random friendlies

 

[adamkungl]

I vote don't bother and stick with mishmash.

On a side note, Roosters seem to be streaming their trial for members

 

[muzby]

Now are the Dragons fans claiming this trophy as theirs ?

Now are the Dragons fans claiming this trophy as theirs ?

i appreciate you taking the effort to ask this question enough times for both sides of the joint venture..

this level of attention to detail is missing in today's society..

 

[T-Boon]

4 conference 4 clubs
Play each team inyour conf, ideally at neutral country or inter state venues
Top team from each conf goes into semis
Final the weekend before round 1

All the while the TV coverage promoting the coming regular NRL season as apposed to the total promo vacuum the trials currently produce. Stop it. Crazy talk.
All I can say is I am so please that Parramatta's NT trial isn't televised this weekend. That would have sucked because I am really looking forward to the twitter updates.