The problems with News Limited owning the Broncos and owning half of Foxsports and half the NRL is perception at the very least (i.e. that all teams have a fair and equal chance of a wrong decision). I doubt any people seriously believe that any referee or video operator ever deliberately favours the Broncos on the basis that they are a News Limited teams. However, subconscious bias is possible and does exist, which is why the home team wins the penalty count 60-65% of weeks. Even though no referee goes out consciously planning to favour the home team, after the fans have screamed to accentuate the transgressions of the away teams, it miraculously turns out that the majority of penalty counts favour the home team.
The Roosters have won less than 20% of their penalty counts over the last three seasons, irrespective of whether they have been home or away, near the top of the table or down the bottom. They also have had a very unlucky run of video referee decisions in the past five weeks (50/50 or worse going against them): First try for Warriors appeared planted on the dead ball line - awarded BOTD; Canberra try also awarded after appearing to bounce forward off a Canberra player first, BOTD; Anasta no try against Bulldogs not awarded because of a miniscule hint of possible separation on one frame - no BOTD given; Kenny try given outright despite apparent obvious dropped ball forward from Folau. Even a Minichiello double movement against the Broncos went to no try, which was a defendable and probably correct decision, but others similar to this have been BOTD earlier this year. This extends to forward pass decisions/non-decisions. Against Souths, apparent fair try in first half by Roosters called back for a flat pass; Against Bulldogs, Ennis massive forward pass ignored, they score next set, then a flat pass by Anasta called forward, stopping a Roosters try and leading to a Bulldogs try.
OK so the Roosters have been the 'unlucky team' with respect to ref and video ref decisions recently. It isn't universal - they did get a 50/50 decision for a leg pull on Linnett on PTB 5th tackle against Souths which helped them win the game. But there have been at least 8 decisions 50/50 or worse that have gone against them in the last 5 weeks, and it is just a fact that the Roosters don't win many penalty counts. The question is: given News Limited's ownership, does the general public believe a similarly unlucky run with the referees like this would be equally likely to occur to the Broncos? I doubt there is anyone who thinks the refs are deliberately biased, but there seem to be an increasing number asking the questions of whether this is completely random or not.
If a subconscious bias does exist, it is probably very small, and it isn't likely to affect the outcome of many games. But it is a fault of the competition structure that News Limited is the games administrator and a team owner. Any conflict that does hang over referees would be removed by a truly independent commission. Bill Harrigan was rightly told in 2005 that if you want to be a video ref you have to resign as a refereeing consultant for the Roosters. News Limited should and will eventually get told if you want to bid for the TV rights, you can't own any teams and you can't own 50% of the competition.
