Channel Nine shows its true colours on rugby

 
Bay35Pablo Roar Guru

By Bay35Pablo, 22 Feb 2011 Bay35Pablo is a Roar Guru

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Channel Nine staged a coup last year, nabbing the rights to the 2011 Rugby World Cup from Channel Seven which has been the “home” of rugby on Free-To-Air (FTA) TV for some time (much to the lament of many Roarers, for various reasons).

Part of the deal trumpeted by John O’Neill for the ARU was that Channel Nine would be showing a highlights package of Super Rugby, to ensure some access to people without pay TV (i.e. Foxtel).

The ARU had finally woken up to both the fact that the sport was languishing without weekly coverage throughout the year and that it could leverage the rights FTA did want because they rated well (i.e. the World Cup) to get a better deal on the part of their game that didn’t rate so well (such as Super Rugby, which Seven found out early on) to give better exposure for the game in the competitive Australian football code wars.

Well, the boys at the ARU will be cracking out the Johnnie Blue and Moet when they see the TV guide for this week. Sitting proudly in prime time, where no one will miss it, is, well, not the Super Rugby highlights show on Nine.

No, that little gem is hiding its light under a bushell at midnight on Tuesday.

All those people without pay TV hopefully have Digital Video Recorders, so that they can record it and watch it at a decent hour.

Without checking how these gems rate (because that would require time for research I don’t have, but then, most professional media outlets don’t seem to either nowadays), Nine is instead broadcasting shows like Ben Elton Live From Planet Earth (which probably sounded like a better option than Super Rugby, before anyone actually saw it), Kitchen Nightmares USA, and Embarrassing Bodies.

Given the cricket World Cup is on, and being shown from 11.30pm on certain nights, perhaps the ARU should be grateful they aren’t on about 3.00am competing with infomercials

Should we be surprised that Nine has done this?

This is, after all, the network that slots Melbourne Storm NRL games at midnight in Melbourne (sports mad capital of Australia), and instead shows (no, not AFL) but repeats of movies. Leaving the NRL frothing at the mouth their “partner” Nine isn’t helping them get better exposure in an already difficult AFL-mad market.

No, Nine treats sport like any other product. If Icelandic truck-racing or Mongolian Junior Masterchef rated well, then they’d show it.

They don’t really care about any sport at the end of the day, no matter what they say – it’s just product.

So did Nine whisper sweet nothings in O’Neill’s ear, promising they’d take care of him if he just committed to them?

Fast cars, a life of luxury with everything a girl (sorry, sports code) could want, if they just came over and brought their sparkly World Cup rights with them?

If so, someone dropped the ball in not making sure it was signed, dealt and delivered and Nine was required to put the highlights show on at a decent hour.

Hell, 10.30pm would have been OK. 9.30pm would have been virtually prime time. 7.30pm, when kids could actually watch it, was probably wishful thinking.

Getting a better time on Gem or Go!, Nine’s digital channels, would have probably not figured in Nine’s plans, as they don’t seem aimed at providing sporting content, rather dramas and sitcoms.

Unlike, say, One HD.

Another alternative is the ARU couldn’t get Nine to agree to guarantee to a decent time (hell, the NRL didn’t or couldn’t with Storm games, and they have arguably more bargaining power). If that was the case, then so much for leverage.

And Mr O’Neill shouldn’t have been trumpeting it as a great factor in the deal.

Instead, the hopeful rugby public have been left feeling much like a commuter after a NSW labor public transport announcement, disappointed at being let down.

Again.

So I’ll be programming my Foxtel IQ to record the show and see if the poor sods they hired to do their show (I wonder if they knew they’d be competing with repeats of Four Corners and Ally McBeal) will be doing a decent job (or rather a better job than Seven and FoxSports, which isn’t setting the bar too high).

However, once again I’m left wondering how rugby manages to do so well (all things considered) in this country when we can’t seem to get any FTA coverage, even when “we” (I’m not sure if the ARU is part of the we, anymore) try.

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