RL Footy Channel

[Pigskin]

just spent a couple of hours watching Fox Footy Channel (yeah yeah but hear me out)

was Brownlow medal night obviously ... the AFL do these types of events so much better than us Leaguies (why is this so ? ... but thats another story for another post)

I'm an all round sports guru and don't mind a bet ... thus the only full coverage of the medal ceremony was on Fox Footy up here in Qld

anyway, moving on

there were advertisements during the coverage for upcoming documentaries on the players, the regular shows etc

such as 1. an upcoming 2 part (2 hours each part I think) documentary about a veteran player and his fights through adversity 2. a behind the scenes look at one of the coaches and how he addresses his players, another 2 hour program 3. lots of programs clearly aimed at women who follow the code and the women married to the men playing the code (would be great for righting the wrongs of the codes problems earlier in the year in this area) 4. junior kids programs which generally feature a current star of the game and a couple of young wannabe kids/commentators

the whole thing is really well done

now RL has all sorts of local junior competitions to cover, the Premier League, the QCup, the Bartercard Cup in NZ, English SL .... the list is endless of sources to draw from that us leaguies would be interested in seeing

then all the magazine type programs which I really enjoy .... I never miss NRL on Fox or NRL Scoreboard and the Sunday Footy Show

It also gives a whole new generation of employment in commentary (the next Rabs or Vossy), production, camera work etc etc etc to ex-leaguies .... as I type this I start to think of the story I saw of Brett Kenny working as a labourer when he is the type of bloke that surely could earn the same dough on a show like Grumpy Old Men (if some have seen it) .... it just goes on and on

I don't watch the channel often and although certainly not a new idea, wtf don't we have a RL channel ? Is it up to us fans to instigate a demand for such a thing ? .... one would think the AFL asked for or demanded such a channel to be able to showcase their code when the TV rights contract was drawn up

I'd love to watch some of the documentaries that they come up with about league players and the behind the scenes stuff

so how do we get a league channel ? thoughts ? is it in the pipeline ?

Oink !

 

[League Freak™]

I believe we have more then enough to fill a good League channel.


I think the problem is with Fox Sports. Ask youself this, if League wasnt shown on Fox Sports......would anyone watch it?



I think the NRL shoudl push for an extra channel however I think you could make such a channel and not need to have the live games on it.

Fox Sports could show the lives games still as well as their two main football shows.

The NRL Channel could have the replays, doco's and other shows you mentioned in your post.

Not ideal, but its a comprimise that I think would work.

 

[DIEHARD]

FOX SPORTS 3

 

[Front-Rower]

The whisper on the grape vine is that Fox Footy Channel is going to be scrapped and like DIEHARD has said Fox Sports 3 will be on Foxtel, Optus and Austar.

 

[OZ_Falcon]

I would really love to see a RL Channel, thats a great idea! You could have way more stuff to fill in time then the AFL Channel.

 

[paulyt]

There used to be a rugby league channel on Optus but that got scrapped when they merged with foxtel.

 

[Martli]

We have a Rugby (union) Channel here in NZ on Sky.

 

[Razor]

Fox Footy is likely to be scrapped.

Foxtel own the AFL rights and own Fox Footy. Fox Footy is losing millions a year. Foxtel are currently in negotiations with Fox Sports(which is not owned by Foxtel) for Fox Sports to purchase the AFL rights off Foxtel.

Since Fox Sports own the RL rights there is no benefit to them to form a League channel.

Also the NRL, Fox Sports, News Ltd, and Seven are due in court March next year over the NRL rights. The NRL stated that Fox Sports didn't get the rights because they were 50% News Ltd owned, they got them because C7s offer involved having a League channel, and that the public wouldn't want a League channel. Seven said that was crap, which I think it clearly is, but there's no proof that wasn't the reason. The NRL nor Fox Sports is going to give them any evidence at all, that could result in a huge payout plus the League pay TV rights to be given to Seven.

 

[gunnamatta bay]

It would be great to see all the old GFs, tests, SOO, docos etc. Imagine coming home late at night and watching the 1989 GF or some other classic.

 

[Razor]

There used to be a rugby league channel on Optus but that got scrapped when they merged with foxtel.

The League channel was scrapped about 8 months before the programming merge took place. The League channel was scrapped when Optus started showing the Fox Sports channels(although called Optus Sports because Foxtel wouldn't allow Fox Sports to be shown on Optus, so Fox Sports simply created a new company name to bypass the clause in their contract with Foxtel.

 

[BuffaloRules]

It would be great to see all the old GFs, tests, SOO, docos etc. Imagine coming home late at night and watching the 1989 GF or some other classic.

I agree - it would be great to watch some of the classic games from the 80's and 90's.... or even earlier if the quality was OK...

I remember last year when the Dally M's got cancelled and Fox showed a replay of the 1981 grand final in its place.... excellent stuff seeing Tommy Raudonikis,Sterling, Kenny and even Phil Gould running around...

 

[Tupac Shakur]

Imagine a NRL Channel was created. That would be the day.

 

[Tidus_Raider]

I think an NRL channel would be great for the game. This doesnt necessarily mean that Fox Sports cant keep on showing the live games. If you look at Fox Footy channel I think they only show 1 maybe 2 live games a week. The rest are replay's of the channel 9 and 10 games.

Think about all the different programs that you could have on it:

NRL-Replay's of the rounds games.

Classic Test, Origin and city/country games.

Premier league games as well as QLD cup games.

English Super League.

And that's just actual games.

I think you can use the current Fox Footy channel as a blue print and then expand on it. The good thing is a NRL channel would have so much more things to show than the AFL one.

Whether or not the people of Sydney, Brisbane and to a lesser extent NZ and Melbourne get behind it is another thing. AFL is worshipped in Victoria and if they aren't making money than what chance does league have. On the up side though League potentially has more regional areas such as Nth QLD, Newcastle, Wollongong and the Central Coast that would be interested in such a concept.

 

[t-ba]

I'm not too keen on an independant RL Channel. Something like that would have the tendency to isolate people who aren't interested in the sport YET (Think of it this way-How many of you avoid FFC like the plague?). I'd prefer more content on the 2 (Soon to be 3) sports Channels.

A "Classic Matches Friday", a Doco on 1 or 2 weeknights, all the ESL fixtures, A Handful of QLD Cup, PL and BC Matches a week and some of the trial matches would be pretty sweet.

e.g-You could have a "Manly Week" in the Offseason. An analysis of the upcoming squad and Season, a Few Docos (Say...Norths Vs Manly Rivalry, Foundation of Manly, The Road to the First Premiership), followed on Friday by Manly's 6 GF's and the 1st World Club Challenge match and the 1997 GF. I'm sure everyone else could conjure something up for their own teams.

 

[Tidus_Raider]

I'm not too keen on an independant RL Channel. Something like that would have the tendency to isolate people who aren't interested in the sport YET (Think of it this way-How many of you avoid FFC like the plague?). I'd prefer more content on the 2 (Soon to be 3) sports Channels.

A "Classic Matches Friday", a Doco on 1 or 2 weeknights, all the ESL fixtures, A Handful of QLD Cup, PL and BC Matches a week and some of the trial matches would be pretty sweet.

e.g-You could have a "Manly Week" in the Offseason. An analysis of the upcoming squad and Season, a Few Docos (Say...Norths Vs Manly Rivalry, Foundation of Manly, The Road to the First Premiership), followed on Friday by Manly's 6 GF's and the 1st World Club Challenge match and the 1997 GF. I'm sure everyone else could conjure something up for their own teams.

That's a good argument. Exposing more people to the game by showcasing it on the more mainstream channels. Either way I think RL needs to be on TV more tha it is ATM.

 

[gunnamatta bay]

I don't know. There are channels just for cooking, home improvements and silly music videos so why not rugby league?

 

[DIEHARD]

Having a dedicated channel can also be a liablity. You want your sport to reach the general public, as it does on FOX SPORTS. Of course due to FOX FOOTY's rather uninspiring performance it is now on the basic package. So they get the best of both worlds for now....

But they will get axed. They simply can not afford the expensive production values of the current FOX FOOTY set up. It will either be scaled down or scrapped.

But what most league fans want is a channel that has all the games. QLD CUP, Super League and NRL. And other competitions. As well as replays of classic games. Very inexpensive. Then we want to see replays of the Footy Show, Boots and All and the Super League Show as well as anything else going.

We aren't asking for much or anything that is particularly expensive. We don't want bells and whistles we want rugby league...

 

[Tupac Shakur]

These threads keep getting created every few months. It's never gonna happen. As much as i'd love it to, it won't.

 

[wittyfan]

Having a dedicated channel can also be a liablity. You want your sport to reach the general public, as it does on FOX SPORTS. Of course due to FOX FOOTY's rather uninspiring performance it is now on the basic package. So they get the best of both worlds for now....

But they will get axed. They simply can not afford the expensive production values of the current FOX FOOTY set up. It will either be scaled down or scrapped.

Fox Footy will eventually go, with a third Fox Sports channel set up. Already this year Club Corner and a few other things have been axed.

 

[unbiasobserver2005]

Interesting yet incorrect theories. The only negotiation foxtel has done with Fox Sports (which is owned outright by News Ltd you nongs lol, and Optus Sports was called that because Optus wanted it lol, Foxtel is very happy to have Fox Sports on Optus, hell they signed the co-program deal lmao) anyway..the onlynegotiation was was Fox Sports to on sell Fox Footy to pubs and clubs.

Also, Fox Footy was placed on the basic package due to Digital being released. Foxtel required a simpler packaging system. Pretty simple! This new system also allowed non-AFL pubs and clubs access to the feed under the Fox Sports basic package, which assists in driving up advertising revenue.

Also, Foxtel is very happy with the performance of Fox Footy, the advertising revenue has ensured healthy profits. The figures of 1 million dollar losses are complete lies with no truth to them at all.

The 3 games that Foxtel show live each week have had great ratings, and under the new deal, Foxtel are likely to be able to show more live games to the Northern Markets.

AFL will however remain a bigger Free to Air game - with Friday night games making the national top 10 on 9 occasions in 2004, the only home and away sport in Australia to do this. Typically the passion in Melbourne, Adelaide and perth will ensure that 5 games per week are shown on Free to air and not be sold off to Foxtel.

A luxury that the passionate league fans can only ever dream of.