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This year, the NRL negotiated a television deal worth $1.025 billion, consisting of $925 million in cash and a further $100 million in advertising. The deal provided three free-to-air games a week on Channel Nine.
Fans’ cries for a fixed schedule were partially heard, with the first 20 rounds scheduled in advance and the last six rounds to be scheduled at round 16.
There are plenty of positives that have come out of this agreement but until the schedule is released a few clubs may not see the good news, if there is any at all.
Players with an increased pay packet won’t mind what time they play or where they play as long as they get paid. Sure there will be players who love playing for the fans but that is not always the primary focus, results are.
The clubs though must be concerned – free-to-air TV coverage can be the difference between millions in sponsorship, gate receipts and general exposure.
Already teams are putting up their hand to ensure they are afforded free-to-air exposure as much as possible and preferably in the time slot of a Friday night live match.
Brisbane Broncos shouldn’t be too concerned as the season that has just passed afforded them 18 matches on Friday night, out of a possible 24 matches throughout the season.
To aid the Broncos even further, only one match occurred on a Saturday and a Monday, the other four remaining matches were on Sundays.
This is the sort of exposure other teams dream of.
I understand why Brisbane Broncos are afforded these time slots over the other 15 teams. With an average of viewing of 470,000 per match and roughly 20% of all viewings throughout the eight matches, why wouldn’t you make Brisbane Broncos your team for others to watch?
Teams want this sort of exposure, though to earn it you need to produce consistent football that attracts fans through the gates and makes people want to turn on the television and watch. And be in a populous region.
Second to the Broncos, Newcastle Knights, St George Illawarra Dragons and Canterbury Bulldogs received a total of nine free-to-air Friday Night Live matches. The Bulldogs had an average attendance rate of 23,572, Knights 20,919 and Dragons 16,426, compared to the Broncos average attendance of 33,377.
I make comparisons to these teams as they only received nine free-to-air Friday night live matches. Five other teams played six or more Friday night matches, these teams were the Storm, Rabbits, Tigers, Manly and Titans.
Out of these nine teams, only five were in the top eight at the end of season.
The other three teams were Cowboys, Raiders and Sharks who played four, three and one matches respectively on Friday night. Out of the eight matches collectively by Cowboys, Raiders and Sharks four of these matches occurred against Brisbane Broncos.
All of these teams finished above the Brisbane Broncos but none of these seven teams inside the top eight none had a larger viewing or higher attendance rate.
Melbourne Storm and Manly are two teams who have produced the most consistent football over the past five seasons, but the key difference here is neither team have averaged above 20,000 fans and at stages throughout their dominance attendances have dipped as low as 10,000.
With all these statistics weighing in favour of the Broncos, there are a few questions that remain. With Channel 9/ Foxtel paying $1.025 billion for TV rights why shouldn’t they be able to decide who plays at what time?
What can the other NRL clubs do to achieve the same results as the Broncos both on-field and off-field? Does a balance need to be afforded between all clubs?
Should Broncos suffer for what has been a successful 25 years of history?
Out of the other 15 teams, 10 have a longer history if you include joint clubs. The other five clubs, the Storm, Cowboys, Warriors, Titans and Knights have had less time to achieve the results the Broncos have, except for Knights who, like the Broncos, have now been established for 25 years.
The NRL is a brand, an image that looks to make money to provide the fans with the entertainment value required to grow the game even further.
As easy as fans can say it is not fair the Broncos played 18 out of 24 games on Friday night, it has to be realised this is not only a sport, form of entertainment and job for many, but a business that will continually look to grow and only make decisions based on evidence to suggest what will make the business grow and develop further.
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