Channel Ten to take over Australian rugby coverage
Roar Guru By John Davidson, 24 Oct 2012 John Davidson is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- Channel Nine, Channel Ten, Rugby Union, wallabies
It should be music to the ears of Australian rugby fans: Network Ten has claimed the free-to-air TV rights for the Wallabies from the Nine Network.
Ten, under-fire and with little top-class sport on its books, will broadcast all of the Wallabies southern hemisphere matches, including next year’s Lions tour, for the next three years.
Ten has been handed the rights by Fox Sports and the ARU, which were previously held by Nine. Many rugby fans believe Nine’s job with rugby was woeful.
Starting with last year’s Rugby World Cup, Nine’s handling of the game they play in heaven was often found wanting.
Early on it was clear the NRL was their top priority and World Cup games were shown on long delays. They also served up a commentator, Ray Hadley, who appeared to have little idea on the rules and laws of rugby.
They continued that train wreck this year, showing a telecast of the Wallabies versus Scotland Test at 11.15pm.
And then there was their coverage of the London Olympics, which was a disaster
For me, Nine’s coverage of sport has gone off the boil a while ago. Many of their commentators are outdated and need freshening up, and Nine remains a massive boy’s club.
The network may have been an innovator of the sports broadcasting back in the World Series cricket days, but it has fallen behind the pack.
Rugby goes to a place – Ten – that is in desperate need of some live sport. Ten should hopefully give rugby the respect it deserves, promote the hell out of it and help the sport grow.
It would make sense for Ten to bid for the Australian club rugby rights as well, which the ABC seems keen to offload, to make the station a real home for union.
Getting the game live on free-to-air commercial television, on a network that is a partner and not just out to make a quick buck, can only be good for Australian rugby.
- Explore:
- Channel Nine, Channel Ten, Rugby Union, wallabies
October 24th 2012 @ 5:35am
The Grafter said | October 24th 2012 @ 5:35am | Report comment
I was very pleased to read that yesterday (like plenty of others Im sure) John.
When I HAVE to watch sport on Nine (usually its only the cricket), the mute button gets hit, ABC radio goes on (I would rather have delayed commentory than listen to the 9 cheerleaders, sorry Richie) , again probably like a few others.
It wont take Ten much to present rugby in a superior way to what Nine has delivered.
October 24th 2012 @ 6:47am
mike said | October 24th 2012 @ 6:47am | Report comment
back from the brink of channel nine rugby genocide
October 24th 2012 @ 7:49am
hog said | October 24th 2012 @ 7:49am | Report comment
lets hope Rugby fans tune in and watch, Rugby needs to rate for the FTA channels to show more interest.
October 24th 2012 @ 8:15am
Emric said | October 24th 2012 @ 8:15am | Report comment
Here’s hoping people watch and 10 is more interested in 3 years time
October 24th 2012 @ 8:42am
Crashy said | October 24th 2012 @ 8:42am | Report comment
Channel nine’s coverage was shocking. How many kickoffs did we miss due to ads going over time. The Nrl finals given preference over the rugby made the game look second rate. I have no doubt channel 10 will have a good showing as its the only winter sport they have. They do a pretty good job with the spring tour so all looking good. The British lions tour next year will repay them in spades.
October 24th 2012 @ 8:54am
RugbyRene said | October 24th 2012 @ 8:54am | Report comment
While I’m happy Channel Nine has lost the rights to rugby. I’m a bit worried by these few sentences from an article I read:
While unable to make ironclad guarantees on live broadcasts, Barham said Ten would treat rugby “with the respect it deserves”.
“We haven’t got any specific programming detail yet, except you can say that we will be treating this as a major sport,” he said.
“It will probably be the major sport we have on the network, so that says a fair bit about what we’ll do with it.”
Let’s parse the language used
While unable to make ironclad guarantees on live broadcasts, Barham said Ten would treat rugby “with the respect it deserves”. – this could be translated to “If there isn’t a final of MasterChef or other high rating show we’ll show the game live otherwise, brew some coffee because you’ll be up late”
We haven’t got any specific programming yet – umm ring the ARU and ask for the international schedule for the next 2 seasons.
“It will probably be a major sport” – hmmm not the commitment I was looking for.
I hope Ten shows all games live, but after reading this I’m afraid it will be Channel Nine all over again.
October 24th 2012 @ 6:35pm
soapit said | October 24th 2012 @ 6:35pm | Report comment
dont worry, only sport has its big nights on saturday, they never put masterchef finale on sat night
October 24th 2012 @ 10:57am
allblackfan said | October 24th 2012 @ 10:57am | Report comment
Ler’s face facts.
Ten is in financial difficulties of its own. It probably couldn’t afford to compete for the AFL/NRL rights or even the increasing value of A League.
What they’re done is go for a sport that has growth potential but whose value is cheap enough for them to afford. I would like to see them pick up the IRB’s Touch Rugby show. I really enjoy watching that!
Perhaps take over the Sydney/Brisbane club game of the day from ABC and maybe even, when its on, an ITM game of the week (one game a week lowers the cost for Ten) to maybe see if there’s a market here for it among all the Kiwi expats and rugby fans.
October 24th 2012 @ 1:02pm
Midfielder said | October 24th 2012 @ 1:02pm | Report comment
By heavens …. first you guys wanted to get on FTA TV and not be on Fox…. 7 & 9 did not treat you right … 10 have said they will rejoice … for the love of Mary be happy about some good news…
October 24th 2012 @ 1:42pm
RugbyRene said | October 24th 2012 @ 1:42pm | Report comment
I think you’ll find that most people are cautious as we’ve been burnt before (as you mention on both 7 & 9). So it’s a case of once (or twice in this case) bitten, twice shy.
I for one hope Channel 10 treat rugby fans properly but if they start doing a Channel 9 on us then they’ll hear about it.
October 24th 2012 @ 2:40pm
Pot Stirrer said | October 24th 2012 @ 2:40pm | Report comment
I think CH 10 will do a great job, however i think it will all come down to how the wallabies perform. If they can play enertaining rugby
(score some tries) and win then it may just get the non diehards interested in the wallabies again.
October 24th 2012 @ 4:40pm
Horatio said | October 24th 2012 @ 4:40pm | Report comment
Will Ten warehouse it like Nine because they have a common owner (Murdoch)
Did O’Neill do the negotiations before he resigned to take on packer (co-owner of ten) as Echo chief against crown??
Does Ten still own the Roar?
Will this post get thru??