Vegas TRIPLE header

[docbrown]

If you want to make a market for the NRL in the States you have to get people to watch. To do that you need to cut through the noise of the 10 BILLION other things that steal potential eyeballs.

So now I'm going to say something controversial. Others will moan but hear me out. The NRL could repeat the same thing 4 more times in Vegas and see what happen. But this would be my 'Let's Toss It All On Red Vegas Style Plan'.

1) Make it a TRIPLE HEADER - one game is for the East Coast US market in particular. The two others balance out the broadcast commitments back here.

2) Convince Murdoch to pay for 2 and a half hour broadcast slot on the Fox main channel. A half hour 7:30 pm Eastern US (in the regional affiliate block) pre-game that is basically a 'Rugby League for Dummies' explainer intermixed with big, brutal footage. The first game would then air 8pm to 10pm Eastern. Why would Murdoch do this? To sell more season passes. Advertise the NRL Triple Header for at least 3 months in the lead up on Fox Main.

3) If you can't convince Murdoch, then - and here's where people will moan - PAY for the 2.5 hour Fox main channel slot. In this scenario, cross sell a bunch of Australian multinationals with a US presence key ad spots. Now you have more corporate partners invested in cross promoting the event.

4) During the 8pm Eastern game, cross promote like crazy the final 2 games that will air on Fox Sports 1 - so that at 10pm you can get a 50 to 80% hold rate.

5) Skip NY. Ad buy in key South West, Texas & Pacific states - basically weekend trippers to Vegas. Target HI white collars with disposables. Silicon Valley, LA high end placements.

6) Do paid celebrity cross promotion - not Alf from Home & Away or even Rusty Crowe - some bigger name American celebrities who have existing awareness of the sport and can tweet for several months regularly in the lead up, working with the NRL marketing team.

7) Schedule as follows:
Game 1 - 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern/12pm EDST/2pm NZ -- FOX Main
Game 2 - 7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern/2pm EDST/4pm NZ -- FS1 -- This game could be the game on Fox main in the Pacific time zone
Game 3 - 9pm Pacific/12am Eastern/4pm EDST/6pm NZ -- FS1

8) Put the Warriors in the Game 2 slot. Sell them as New Zealand's side in the cross promote. You will pull in casuals who associate NZ with rugby. An incorrect association with the All Blacks but it will work. Plus you now have a reason for NZers in the states to attend and watch.

9) Make the Warriors New Zealand game on FTA in New Zealand

10) Make both Game 2 & 3 on FTA in Australia. Of the three remaining teams, one has to be a Queensland NRL team. Broncos would be the biggest but Dolphins or Cowboys also work. Ensure one of the other clubs is a big Sydney club - Eels or Bulldogs potentially - hopefully they're actually in decent form -- preferably in the game 3 slot in the lead up to the 6pm news in Sydney. The other would be the Storm - I'd have the Storm match in the 4pm slot. What does this do? In that 4 hour slot you are targeting Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland metros and maintaining them across all 4 hours.

11) Make sure Game 1 features 2 close competitive teams with a penchant for playing exciting attacking rugby league - this will be the game that 90% of Americans will actually see.

12) Make sure you sell 60,000 tickets - you now have 6 team fan bases to market to plus New Zealand - and if you do the crowd average will remain the same as this year's.

 

[Ozzi_78]

Why?

 

[docbrown]

Why?

To have a game in American primetime across the lower 48 on a main channel.

 

[yakstorm]

I like the suggestions. I don't think the NRL would necessarily the appetite to take on the extra costs of sending across another two teams yet, though there are definitely some suggestions that should be considered regardless.

The East Coast friendlier kick off time puts the game in a better position to try and capture a bigger audience organically, and honestly if they could get at least one game on the main Fox network would be their best bet of making a big splash.

I was surprised how little celebrities were used to help promote Vegas this year (and especially the broadcast), whether that be just known Australians or Americans who actually know of the sport. We had Letterman actually pretend to be the new owner of the Rabbitohs, and the sport did nothing to promote off the back of that.

In addition to your suggestions, I would say the NRL should be:
1) Trying to work something with Fox Sports for this year to ensure as many games are on FS1 & FS2 as possible, including the replays. Being hidden away on Fox Sports Plus means it's almost impossible for casuals to 'stumble' across it or for any of the 60K+ who watched this weekend to try and follow the competition without getting Watch NRL.

Even if games are only getting 20-30K, it's far better than what the sport has been getting and helps grow the very small pool of people living in the US who know what Rugby League is.

2) Reduce the Watch NRL cost (or even start doing X number of days free). The USD150 pa is clearly a big deterrent based upon what people are saying on social. For those who have honestly gone to the effort of even looking up what it is, just get them on any which way possible.

 

[Éamonn an Chnoic]

Docbrown is iconic!

 

[The Great Dane]

I like the suggestions. I don't think the NRL would necessarily the appetite to take on the extra costs of sending across another two teams yet, though there are definitely some suggestions that should be considered regardless.

The East Coast friendlier kick off time puts the game in a better position to try and capture a bigger audience organically, and honestly if they could get at least one game on the main Fox network would be their best bet of making a big splash.

I was surprised how little celebrities were used to help promote Vegas this year (and especially the broadcast), whether that be just known Australians or Americans who actually know of the sport. We had Letterman actually pretend to be the new owner of the Rabbitohs, and the sport did nothing to promote off the back of that.

In addition to your suggestions, I would say the NRL should be:
1) Trying to work something with Fox Sports for this year to ensure as many games are on FS1 & FS2 as possible, including the replays. Being hidden away on Fox Sports Plus means it's almost impossible for casuals to 'stumble' across it or for any of the 60K+ who watched this weekend to try and follow the competition without getting Watch NRL.

Even if games are only getting 20-30K, it's far better than what the sport has been getting and helps grow the very small pool of people living in the US who know what Rugby League is.

2) Reduce the Watch NRL cost (or even start doing X number of days free). The USD150 pa is clearly a big deterrent based upon what people are saying on social. For those who have honestly gone to the effort of even looking up what it is, just get them on any which way possible.

Adding to that; if they're serious about growing overseas they need to stop claiming all NRL related content on YouTube, other video hosting sites, and live-streaming services.

YouTubers and other similar influencers reacting to the sport and the NRL's content is a powerful form of free publicity that gets their product under the noses of a lot of people who wouldn't normally be interacting with it otherwise. Outside of the odd case where somebody is taking the piss and, e.g. illegally streaming full games, claiming that content only results in it not getting made and the NRL losing that free publicity.

If anything they should be reaching out to influencers that take an interest in the game to try and keep as many of them involved in the sport as possible, and just one of the major internet sports personalities taking an interest in the NRL, the likes of Pat McAfee or Barstool for example, would be better publicity in America than anything they could buy.

 

[Timbo]

If you want to make a market for the NRL in the States you have to get people to watch. To do that you need to cut through the noise of the 10 BILLION other things that steal potential eyeballs.

So now I'm going to say something controversial. Others will moan but hear me out. The NRL could repeat the same thing 4 more times in Vegas and see what happen. But this would be my 'Let's Toss It All On Red Vegas Style Plan'.

1) Make it a TRIPLE HEADER - one game is for the East Coast US market in particular. The two others balance out the broadcast commitments back here.

2) Convince Murdoch to pay for 2 and a half hour broadcast slot on the Fox main channel. A half hour 7:30 pm Eastern US (in the regional affiliate block) pre-game that is basically a 'Rugby League for Dummies' explainer intermixed with big, brutal footage. The first game would then air 8pm to 10pm Eastern. Why would Murdoch do this? To sell more season passes. Advertise the NRL Triple Header for at least 3 months in the lead up on Fox Main.

3) If you can't convince Murdoch, then - and here's where people will moan - PAY for the 2.5 hour Fox main channel slot. In this scenario, cross sell a bunch of Australian multinationals with a US presence key ad spots. Now you have more corporate partners invested in cross promoting the event.

4) During the 8pm Eastern game, cross promote like crazy the final 2 games that will air on Fox Sports 1 - so that at 10pm you can get a 50 to 80% hold rate.

5) Skip NY. Ad buy in key South West, Texas & Pacific states - basically weekend trippers to Vegas. Target HI white collars with disposables. Silicon Valley, LA high end placements.

6) Do paid celebrity cross promotion - not Alf from Home & Away or even Rusty Crowe - some bigger name American celebrities who have existing awareness of the sport and can tweet for several months regularly in the lead up, working with the NRL marketing team.

7) Schedule as follows:
Game 1 - 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern/12pm EDST/2pm NZ -- FOX Main
Game 2 - 7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern/2pm EDST/4pm NZ -- FS1
Game 3 - 9pm Pacific/12am Eastern/4pm EDST/6pm NZ -- FS1

8) Put the Warriors in the Game 2 slot. Sell them as New Zealand's side in the cross promote. You will pull in casuals who associate NZ with rugby. An incorrect association with the All Blacks but it will work. Plus you now have a reason for NZers in the states to attend and watch.

9) Make the Warriors New Zealand game on FTA in New Zealand

10) Make both Game 2 & 3 on FTA in Australia. Of the three remaining teams, one has to be a Queensland NRL team. Broncos would be the biggest but Dolphins or Cowboys also work. Ensure one of the other clubs is a big Sydney club - Eels or Bulldogs potentially - hopefully they're actually in decent form -- preferably in the game 3 slot in the lead up to the 6pm news in Sydney. The other would be the Storm - I'd have the Storm match in the 4pm slot. What does this do? In that 4 hour slot you are targeting Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland metros and maintaining them across all 4 hours.

11) Make sure Game 1 features 2 close competitive teams with a penchant for playing exciting attacking rugby league - this will be the game that 90% of Americans will actually see.

12) Make sure you sell 60,000 tickets - you now have 6 team fan bases to market to plus New Zealand - and if you do the crowd average will remain the same as this year's.

I too have tried hard drugs in my life.

 

[Fangs]

Adding to that; if they're serious about growing overseas they need to stop claiming all NRL related content on YouTube, other video hosting sites, and live-streaming services.

This is correct.

All access to content and statistics. Lets fans do whatever they want with it. Just censor the guys uploading full matches.

Cricket has a similar issue. Only one great channel has ever existed and it was taken down due to copyright (Robelinda).

 

[yakstorm]

Adding to that; if they're serious about growing overseas they need to stop claiming all NRL related content on YouTube, other video hosting sites, and live-streaming services.

Agree 100% with yourself and @Fangs' comment. Awareness and accessibility are the only ways we are going to grow the number of RL fans in the states by any significant margin and we can't just expect people to go through the official channels if they have no idea what the sport is.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Getting a few major acts to promote the event and perform at half time and between games would be a better way of attracting a large audience. Cost is the biggest issue.

 

[emesssea]

Theres just no way youre getting the NRL on broadcast tv at primetime, even more so with the numbers it got this year. Thats a non starter. Its staying on FS1.

If the goal of NRL really is to expand rugby league to the US via playing games there (which I dont think it is) they should to do this:

1. Try to get the first game at 700 pm EST. Makes no sense to have the first game kick off at 930 EST.

2. Have a separate broadcast team for the American audience, that can effectively explain the game as its happening without talking down to the audience. I was pretty shocked to find out the same team I was listening too in the US was the team being heard in Australia.

3. Have better promotional videos instead of Gronkowski doing his dumb jock shtick while saying "Wow what a big hit" "Oh man, diffidently want to wear pads for that one". Have a video(s) explaining what rugby league is, how it differs from union, its lingo (try = touchdown, into touch = out of bounds), its culture/history, the rules.

4. Get it out of Vegas. Vegas just screams "were here for the money". Play it in New York, LA, Miami, etc. We have much more iconic stadiums than Allegiant located in better cities.

Heres the dirty little secret about the US:

We are not the sports mad country that the promoters make us out to be, many watch the NFL and nothing else, and are fine with that.

Also we are not starved for sports content, we have enough already. A typical early March saturday in the US looks like this close to 10 hours of european soccer, close to 14 hours of college basketball, spring training baseball, whatever games from the NHL and NBA that are scheduled that night, plus a few other niche events. The NRL has a long road before it cuts its own spots in that schedule.

The time of year we are light on live sports is in July (NBA/NHL is over, NFL preseason hasnt started, MLB is hitting its midseason lull). Obviously thats not feasible for the NRL to come over then, so I think Super League is the ones that could promote the game, but theyre still trying to figure out how to promote the game in the north of england.

 

[Canard]

Getting a few major acts to promote the event and perform at half time and between games would be a better way of attracting a large audience. Cost is the biggest issue.

It really isn't.

It would be like selling sand in the Middle East, to put on a musical act miming three songs in Vegas.

Think before posting.

 

[T-Boon]

Getting a few major acts to promote the event and perform at half time and between games would be a better way of attracting a large audience. Cost is the biggest issue.

Miley Cyrus

 

[Chins get the wins]

It really isn't.

It would be like selling sand in the Middle East, to put on a musical act miming three songs in Vegas.

Think before posting.

Your first post to make sense in a long time

 

[colly]

If you want to make a market for the NRL in the States you have to get people to watch. To do that you need to cut through the noise of the 10 BILLION other things that steal potential eyeballs.

So now I'm going to say something controversial. Others will moan but hear me out. The NRL could repeat the same thing 4 more times in Vegas and see what happen. But this would be my 'Let's Toss It All On Red Vegas Style Plan'.

1) Make it a TRIPLE HEADER - one game is for the East Coast US market in particular. The two others balance out the broadcast commitments back here.

2) Convince Murdoch to pay for 2 and a half hour broadcast slot on the Fox main channel. A half hour 7:30 pm Eastern US (in the regional affiliate block) pre-game that is basically a 'Rugby League for Dummies' explainer intermixed with big, brutal footage. The first game would then air 8pm to 10pm Eastern. Why would Murdoch do this? To sell more season passes. Advertise the NRL Triple Header for at least 3 months in the lead up on Fox Main.

3) If you can't convince Murdoch, then - and here's where people will moan - PAY for the 2.5 hour Fox main channel slot. In this scenario, cross sell a bunch of Australian multinationals with a US presence key ad spots. Now you have more corporate partners invested in cross promoting the event.

4) During the 8pm Eastern game, cross promote like crazy the final 2 games that will air on Fox Sports 1 - so that at 10pm you can get a 50 to 80% hold rate.

5) Skip NY. Ad buy in key South West, Texas & Pacific states - basically weekend trippers to Vegas. Target HI white collars with disposables. Silicon Valley, LA high end placements.

6) Do paid celebrity cross promotion - not Alf from Home & Away or even Rusty Crowe - some bigger name American celebrities who have existing awareness of the sport and can tweet for several months regularly in the lead up, working with the NRL marketing team.

7) Schedule as follows:
Game 1 - 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern/12pm EDST/2pm NZ -- FOX Main
Game 2 - 7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern/2pm EDST/4pm NZ -- FS1
Game 3 - 9pm Pacific/12am Eastern/4pm EDST/6pm NZ -- FS1

8) Put the Warriors in the Game 2 slot. Sell them as New Zealand's side in the cross promote. You will pull in casuals who associate NZ with rugby. An incorrect association with the All Blacks but it will work. Plus you now have a reason for NZers in the states to attend and watch.

9) Make the Warriors New Zealand game on FTA in New Zealand

10) Make both Game 2 & 3 on FTA in Australia. Of the three remaining teams, one has to be a Queensland NRL team. Broncos would be the biggest but Dolphins or Cowboys also work. Ensure one of the other clubs is a big Sydney club - Eels or Bulldogs potentially - hopefully they're actually in decent form -- preferably in the game 3 slot in the lead up to the 6pm news in Sydney. The other would be the Storm - I'd have the Storm match in the 4pm slot. What does this do? In that 4 hour slot you are targeting Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland metros and maintaining them across all 4 hours.

11) Make sure Game 1 features 2 close competitive teams with a penchant for playing exciting attacking rugby league - this will be the game that 90% of Americans will actually see.

12) Make sure you sell 60,000 tickets - you now have 6 team fan bases to market to plus New Zealand - and if you do the crowd average will remain the same as this year's.

I was thinking about the same, but i would have them play again in 6 days time. Reverse the order but play games for Saturday and Sunday ( OZ market) and then then anther round on Friday Vegas time for the Saturday ( OZ) games. This would give the fans that traveled their value for money. It will have the buzz going 3 week. Or the buzz before for a week, 1st round game and then 6 six days latter, buzz for anther week.
I

 

[Colk]

Adding to that; if they're serious about growing overseas they need to stop claiming all NRL related content on YouTube, other video hosting sites, and live-streaming services.

YouTubers and other similar influencers reacting to the sport and the NRL's content is a powerful form of free publicity that gets their product under the noses of a lot of people who wouldn't normally be interacting with it otherwise. Outside of the odd case where somebody is taking the piss and, e.g. illegally streaming full games, claiming that content only results in it not getting made and the NRL losing that free publicity.

If anything they should be reaching out to influencers that take an interest in the game to try and keep as many of them involved in the sport as possible, and just one of the major internet sports personalities taking an interest in the NRL, the likes of Pat McAfee or Barstool for example, would be better publicity in America than anything they could buy.

100%. The other thing is to try and grab American capital including some prominent Americans to own or buy stakes in clubs. That would be the biggest thing.

 

[Get Rid of The Donkeys]

Miley Cyrus

Kiss, Seal, Miley Cyrus, Metallica, Taylor Swift and Pink.

 

[docbrown]

I like the suggestions. I don't think the NRL would necessarily the appetite to take on the extra costs of sending across another two teams yet, though there are definitely some suggestions that should be considered regardless.

The East Coast friendlier kick off time puts the game in a better position to try and capture a bigger audience organically, and honestly if they could get at least one game on the main Fox network would be their best bet of making a big splash.

I was surprised how little celebrities were used to help promote Vegas this year (and especially the broadcast), whether that be just known Australians or Americans who actually know of the sport. We had Letterman actually pretend to be the new owner of the Rabbitohs, and the sport did nothing to promote off the back of that.

In addition to your suggestions, I would say the NRL should be:
1) Trying to work something with Fox Sports for this year to ensure as many games are on FS1 & FS2 as possible, including the replays. Being hidden away on Fox Sports Plus means it's almost impossible for casuals to 'stumble' across it or for any of the 60K+ who watched this weekend to try and follow the competition without getting Watch NRL.

Even if games are only getting 20-30K, it's far better than what the sport has been getting and helps grow the very small pool of people living in the US who know what Rugby League is.

2) Reduce the Watch NRL cost (or even start doing X number of days free). The USD150 pa is clearly a big deterrent based upon what people are saying on social. For those who have honestly gone to the effort of even looking up what it is, just get them on any which way possible.

I agree with both those suggestions. You can't just go to Vegas and then hope the fans will come. The audience has to be built week in week out. Vegas is basically just a giant advertisement for the week in week out content.

 

[docbrown]

Theres just no way youre getting the NRL on broadcast tv at primetime, even more so with the numbers it got this year. Thats a non starter. Its staying on FS1.

If the goal of NRL really is to expand rugby league to the US via playing games there (which I dont think it is) they should to do this:

1. Try to get the first game at 700 pm EST. Makes no sense to have the first game kick off at 930 EST.

2. Have a separate broadcast team for the American audience, that can effectively explain the game as its happening without talking down to the audience. I was pretty shocked to find out the same team I was listening too in the US was the team being heard in Australia.

3. Have better promotional videos instead of Gronkowski doing his dumb jock shtick while saying "Wow what a big hit" "Oh man, diffidently want to wear pads for that one". Have a video(s) explaining what rugby league is, how it differs from union, its lingo (try = touchdown, into touch = out of bounds), its culture/history, the rules.

4. Get it out of Vegas. Vegas just screams "were here for the money". Play it in New York, LA, Miami, etc. We have much more iconic stadiums than Allegiant located in better cities.

Heres the dirty little secret about the US:

We are not the sports mad country that the promoters make us out to be, many watch the NFL and nothing else, and are fine with that.

Also we are not starved for sports content, we have enough already. A typical early March saturday in the US looks like this close to 10 hours of european soccer, close to 14 hours of college basketball, spring training baseball, whatever games from the NHL and NBA that are scheduled that night, plus a few other niche events. The NRL has a long road before it cuts its own spots in that schedule.

The time of year we are light on live sports is in July (NBA/NHL is over, NFL preseason hasnt started, MLB is hitting its midseason lull). Obviously thats not feasible for the NRL to come over then, so I think Super League is the ones that could promote the game, but theyre still trying to figure out how to promote the game in the north of england.

You're speaking to someone who lived there for a long time and who regularly explains to people on this forum just how big and diversified the country is. I also work in the media. I know the market quite well. This post is literally how I'd run a targeted marketing campaign for Vegas.

Saying primetime on Fox main is a non-starter is all a matter of effort. You can believe that but it's hard to prove it outright. People said going to Vegas itself was a non starter. Like I said, the NRL either convinces the Murdochs or pays the Murdochs if they want that. If they don't try though we'll never know. Honestly, the cost for a 2.5 hour prime time Saturday slot isn't beyond the scope of what the NRL has invested in Vegas already, particularly if they arrange some multinational ad block sell-ons.

The big thing with a 7pm US Eastern Time zone slot is that's 11 a.m. here. This whole project only works if you have Foxtel and 9's backing. Maybe they would support an 11-3pm Australian timezone slot but I'd be skeptical.

I agree about the broadcast team. Channel 9 was woeful but that's to be expected.

Re: sports in the states, I've also said the same things. NRL will never be in the top ten sports. But if you attract a fan base of a couple of million out of a country of 330 million, you're coming close to doubling the NRL's existing Australian fan base. Their support will be softer as they can't attend games but there will be flows on through TV game passes, merchandising etc. I think that's achievable over 10-20 year period with consistency. That doesn't mean there will be 5 million people watching every game. If they could start drawing 100-150k for a couple of key weekly matches, then they have something broadcasters will pay more attention to. I mean 5 million sounds like a lot but in a country of 330 million, but you could find niche groups of a lot of sport, entertainment or pop culture in that size.

NRL is the best club competition of either rugby code. Just like Australians watch the NBA and not NBL, we want a pool of Americans watching us because it's the best in that type of sport.

 

[emesssea]

You're speaking to someone who lived there for a long time and who regularly explains to people on this forum just how big and diversified the country is. I also work in the media. I know the market quite well. This post is literally how I'd run a targeted marketing campaign for Vegas.

Saying primetime on Fox main is a non-starter is all a matter of effort. You can believe that but it's hard to prove it outright. People said going to Vegas itself was a non starter. Like I said, the NRL either convinces the Murdochs or pays the Murdochs if they want that. If they don't try though we'll never know. Honestly, the cost for a 2.5 hour prime time Saturday slot isn't beyond the scope of what the NRL has invested in Vegas already, particularly if they arrange some multinational ad block sell-ons.

The big thing with a 7pm US Eastern Time zone slot is that's 11 a.m. here. This whole project only works if you have Foxtel and 9's backing. Maybe they would support an 11-3pm Australian timezone slot but I'd be skeptical.

I agree about the broadcast team. Channel 9 was woeful but that's to be expected.

Re: sports in the states, I've also said the same things. NRL will never be in the top ten sports. But if you attract a fan base of a couple of million out of a country of 330 million, you're coming close to doubling the NRL's existing Australian fan base. Their support will be softer as they can't attend games but there will be flows on through TV game passes, merchandising etc. I think that's achievable over 10-20 year period with consistency. That doesn't mean there will be 5 million people watching every game. If they could start drawing 100-150k for a couple of key weekly matches, then they have something broadcasters will pay more attention to. I mean 5 million sounds like a lot but in a country of 330 million, but you could find niche groups of a lot of sport, entertainment or pop culture in that size.

NRL is the best club competition of either rugby code. Just like Australians watch the NBA and not NBL, we want a pool of Americans watching us because it's the best in that type of sport.

Youre speaking to someone who is from there, but my all means you lived here for a few years...

I don't think you fully appreciate how big broadcast TV is here. On that Saturday, Michigan St played Purdue in college basketball on Fox at 8pm EST. Now mind you college basketball regular season is not must see TV, its almost a niche product, and it still got 1.3 million viewers. NRL is going to have to fork over a crap ton of money to Fox to air a sport that has no commercial breaks and that got less than 6 figures on FS1 if they want to be on broadcast TV.
Of course thats all before you factor in the 10 pm news.

And I thought this was about growing the game in the US? When the NFL plays games in London, those games start at around 9 am or 10 am in the East coast. Why? Because its about spreading the game. When the Dodgers and DBacks game to sydney, those games where played at 4 am EST/1 am PST, why? Because it was about spreading the game.

If the focus is to have an ideal kick off time for Australia good luck getting anyone east of the rockies to watch.

Also, NRL or Fox (whoever runs it) needs to lower the price of watchNRL, how can they expect to grow the game by showing a double header late on a saturday once a year then go behind that giant paywall for the rest? At the very least, offer one game per week for free.

In the end Im very skeptical that NRL will make any serious inroads simply because of the time difference. The rest of this weekends game times are 130 am, 330, am, and 1200 am for the east coast. Thats why I think Superleague may have more success.

Hopefully, IMG is watching and thinking they can have their own doubleheader on the east coast at more friendlier times. They could play in on saturday afternoon in the US and then try to find a tv or streaming partner to show weekly games, as their kick off times are more US friendly.