Goddo
Bench
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With the new anti-siphoning rules introducing a requirement that listed events (ie. the three Channel Nein games) must be broadcast within four hours of kickoff, the Melbourne Storm are about to become very valuable to the free to air rights holder.
With two matches played at 7.30pm Friday night the latest the second of those matches could start replaying in Melbourne is 11.30pm. Unless the other game is shown simultaneously on one of their other channels, this would mean the first match has to start showing around 9.30pm. For Sunday afternoon games it's even better with the latest replay starting at 7pm.
These legally imposed time slots are going to make maximising Melbourne ratings for NRL matches suddenly very important to Nein to minimise the loss in advertising revenue. What's the best way to consistently maximise ratings in any market? Show the local team of course. Expect to see the Storm scheduled almost weekly on free to air much like the Broncos as soon as the new rules come into force.
Leigh.
This simply emphasises the absolute need of the NRL to commit to expansion in Perth and Brisbane/SE Queensland ((and then looking longer term maybe a 5th Queensland side, Adelaide and/or Christchurch/Wellington)).
You think the anti siphoning is good in Victoria. Look at WA. Even if they show it as late as possible, that State is 2 hours behind to start with... a 4 hour delay from live is only 2 hours behind in terms of time slots.
Friday night football into Perth would be at the latest starting at 9:30pm, which means the first game has to be before 7:30pm. Worst case scenario is they actually broadcast the first game live, which would start at 5:30 and the second at 7:30. That is still pretty awesome. Sunday games would have to be broadcast sometime between 11:00am and 3:00pm if played in Sydney. :crazy:
Concidering this Perth with a population comparable to Brisbane is an absolute MUST for expansion. The Reds have a huge mortgage on the first expansion allocation. TV slots into Adelaide would be better than Melbourne, but not as great as Perth looks.
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If free to air televised games each week typically feature Melbourne, Perth, 2-3 Sydney sides and 1-2 Queensland sides, there is a significant problem for the NRL getting exposure fairly across all clubs in Sydney.
Expect the broadcasters to play games such that you have clubs matching up each week something like:
(QLD) vs (VIC)
(NSW) vs (WA) and
(NSW) vs (NSW or QLD)
or some similar sort of spread.
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It will be very hard on teams like Cronulla, Penrith, Canberra and Newcastle especially, who will be lucky to get more than a handful of free to air games. Thats roughly 72 (3x24) slots for NSW+ACT teams, spread across 11 clubs, averaging 6.5 games per club, but this allocation won't be fairly spread.
Clubs like St George, Wests, Souths, Parramatta and Canterbury will get the lions share because they rate better. If you add the Bears, the pain is even worse. The average stretches to 6 games per club.
![Frown :( :(](/data/emoji/2639.png)
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Queensland on the other hand has only 3 sides, 1 of which is regional. These teams will have a dominant position in terms of TV rights; expect something like 48 (2x24) slots for 3 Qld teams, an average of 16 free to air games each per year.
Providing more competition and local content into SE Queensland other than the Broncos and Titans can only be a good thing for crowds, memberships, TV rights and so on. It would also reduce the dull specticle of watching the Broncos play every week.
![Smile :) :)](/data/emoji/263a.png)