David Gallop is letting rugby league die

If sports marketers were looking to grow a sport world wide, I don’t think Greece would be that important to them. Its only got a population of 11 million and very low birth rate. I don’t think they’d care how many turn up. Greece is not exactly a bellwether market.

This writer reckons that at the 2010 world cup “……..the cumulative worldwide television viewers are tipped to reach 40 billion, with the most viewers coming from Asia…..” http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/reasons-the-world-cup-would-be-good-for-us/

Both figures are cumulative. I can't vouch for the soccer number but the union number is a joke.

I think it is likely to be something like 4.5b cumulative hours watched, i.e divide by the number of hours broadcast to get the audience. If not, then how much more daft would a number of 26b be for soccer in a world with only 6b people (but surprisingly, seldom if ever questioned)?

The IRB claim that a cumulative audience of 4.5 billion watched the 2007 union world cup - they also claim that 4.5 billion was the cumulative audience able to watch the 2007 union world cup. Presumably they expect us to believe that everybody who could watch did watch. Only union folk would be daft enough to believe that

I suspect this discussion has been had before...for all events they can't measure how many actually watched, only how many had it available to watch. It is really only a measure of the extent of interest from the broadcasting industry (which is not insignificant in itself unless one feels that they have no idea of their market and what sells). Not quite sure of the actual units of measure though...I know for a fact I didn't watch the soccer in 06, let alone watch it four times simultaneously.

some of those figure seem pretty large. Are you sure half the world watched the last rugby world cup?

Unless Petro had a European passport the chances of playing for Manchester United would not be great. So he took the right career path.

aaron and davo i have been following football for along time. i am an Australian with an interest in our sporting heritage. Whether i like or you like it or not that sporting heritage is relatively unique and for better or worse part of our cultural makeup. i find it very foolish to compare international football to a parochial game like rugby league or Australian rules. there is no comparison. There is nothing wrong however with such games. They often tell us something about our character . it is equally as foolish to underestimate the athleticism skill and tactical expertise to be a elite football player. I truly wish football supporters would concentrate on the apalling crowd of 2500 who turned up to the last Gold Coast game and how it needs to be addressed then mindless points scoring on the greater international presence of football. it is so obvious it masks a an inferiority which should not exist. . In my experience there is high cross over rate between many supprters of national parochial games and football. That is who we are.

soccer world cup 06 got 26 billion viewers world wide,rugby 07 world cup 3 billion and rugby league 08 world cup 20 million soccer is so far ahead its not funny make a freakin iran team i will be the half back me mates woul'nt mind playing for iran

what i wanna see is petro civonoceiva play for manchester united he could make a touch more money and soccer is easy anyone can play for them and make millions i've started playing soccer because thats my plan make a easy buck believe it or not i've heard people say this playing football in the english top flight is like winnig the lotto the big bloak will need a breather after 5 minutes of not touching the ball

In league the emphasis is being moved away from the schools competitions and towards the NRL clubs own development programs

the game needs true superstars like soccer its easy to call anyone a superstar but a true superstar is world known and can attract 90000 fans when on a trip to greece or whatever country it may be is recognised in hollywood has companies like armani and nike throwing millions of dollars at the superstar to advertise there stuff in world wide catalogues has 30 paperazzis chasing them around outside the shoppin centre appears reguarly in gossip magazines

guys just support football it will never die

RedB Mate I don't have the fascination or obsessive dislike or the need to rely on Roy Masters for info.He seems to be your "persona non grata". Searle knows a darn side more about sport(he played for the GC Seagulls),commerce(he is a successful chartered accountant) and setting up community clubs (Titans)than Roy the boy could fit into several lifetimes. The Titans will be shortly opening a $30 training and commercial facility near the stadium.He is the need breed of sporting administrator. Let me just outline a few things,firstly from a layman's point of view,where the Tv contract money is underdone. In rugby league there is a 3 game State of origin series on FTA(the AFL now has no such animal). This year SOO1 was a record with FTA TV ratings 2.287m (up 9.32% on 2008) for the 5 capitals.Two of whom showed the games at late hours. Plus 1.156m regional viewers in NSW QLD VIC and Tasmania._Notice no SA or WA . SOO2 2.135m across 5 cap cities a further .1.113m across regionals . SOO3 despite being a dead rubber still achieved 1.912 in 5 cap cities and a further 1.054 across regionals (even Melbourne had 280,000). Advertising revenue advised by Media release Free TV Australia on 29/1/09 not advised by Roy Masters or anyone within rugby league: Sydney:$556,455,156 Melb 418,598,134 Brisbane 258,131,872 Adelaide 113,088,596 Perth 151,777,724 Regionals (where rugby league is strongest in NSW and Qld and where the bigger majority of the ad revenue is achieved) NSW 194,552,699 Vic 66,354,015 Qld 111,957,125 SA 15,249,155 WA 23,620,086 Tas/NT 3,788,730 FTA TV ratings for the NRL are up in both Sydney and Brisbane,whereas the Swans ratings are down.It is not a secret.Without rugby league ch9 ,would be in real trouble in the overall ratings scheme of things.It is a bigger arrow to your bow,when you can show the ratings are growing,in order to gain a better deal. You add in the odd test match or two which usually wins the FTA ratings. You throw in New Zealand as part of the overall deal,where the NRL and SOO is extremely popular on the box. One notes that AFL is on saturdays afternoons in Sydney ditto Sunday.On Saturday evenings when the Swans play on that evening.,having the luxury of 2 FTA Tv stations ,who shared the spoils. In contrast using in the AFL states as an example the NRL is on when????? the witching hour,hardly an inducement for advertisers.So from the NRL's perspective ,there is a hell of a lot of room to move timewise and splitting up its offering to get a better deal. Every man(except the NRL half owned by News) who knows a little bit about sport in this state suggests rugby league ,undersold itself on the last deal,and we don't need Roy to tell us the bleeding obvious. I haven't even touched on pay Tv,but will make a couple of observations as per Media Man_Fox 's website" National rugby league is the highest rating sport on Fox sports,usually topping pay TV ratings every week". Out of the top 100 programs last year 08 ,64 were rugby league and 23 AFL.The NRL has 5 games on Fox and the AFL 4 . Then out of left field,it is now almost a lay down Perth will be added to the NRL.On that reasoning alone,one would expect the game will be offered a better time slot,in Perth and due to ch9 's intransigence in Melbourne as part of the new conrtractual requirements. I will repeat or threepeat as i often do, K Packer was part of the last inflated bidding process,he will not feature in the next.

It doesn’t matter about the variance in start times it’s the figures you bring in at prime time that matter and determine worth and attractiveness to sponsors. The fairest time comparison would be 8:30 to 9:30 pm then and there just isn’t the variance in ratings that would justify the difference in the deals. Clearly the NRL aren’t getting the money they should when compared to the AFL. It doesn't matter the reasons behind the AFL not beeing able to extract the ratings they deserve from perth it's the scorboard that counts. The NRL in Prime Time on Friday night gives figures pretty close to what the AFL brings in (and that doesn't inlcude regionals which are definitely in NRL's favor) Also If I check the score, I never end up watching the game (even if my team won), so I can relate to that.

Well the 5th team going to Melbourne is probably better timing because of the new stadium and with no FTA presence for Super Rugby the amount of support and promotion it can get is capped anyway. I wouldn’t blame the RWC it’s more the gimmick wearing off (warning too the Socceroos that they better keep qualifying for World Cups) with the Wallabies no longer being the best team in the World and the style played is no longer the “rugby lite” it was during the Mcqueen and Eddie Jones era where backs were as or more important than forwards because possession was so easy to keep. The whole time Rugby was at the zenith it felt similar to the basketball craze too me. Most Aussie fans were never going to cheer for a captain calling for a scrum, meanwhile the Kiwis would be going off there rocker about the implications. Sensible football fans know the A leagues place for the foreseeable future and it’s not competing with the AFL and NRL.

The irony is - that 2003 year appears to be the local zenith of the game.....perhaps the problem of a world cup is that all else - by comparison - is NOT a world cup. An obvious statement, but, RU in Australia seems to have suffered a RUWC hangover. At that time, I honestly thought RU was going to grow - - but, it's not that simple, and as it was, they went for Perth rather than Melbourne.......I wonder just how big a mistake that may proove to be in the long run. Redb and myself have countered the national domination arguments of soccer fans for some time by stressing that the Socceroos are NOT in competition with the AFL. That market consists mainly of the Wallabies. Less so other national sporting representation. Rugby League is slowly learning to find independant revenue streams - - i.e. atttendance and club memberships are revenue streams independant of broadcasters and sponsors. Developing these revenue streams gives greater core strength to a game/code. However, RL has that whole vulnerability of losing players overseas/to Union etc. So, whilst - for now, the AFL can effectively formulate and execute policy - the NRL is always a tad bit more reactive to circumstance beyond it's control. Obviously the K.Hunt happenings presently only compound that. RL junior pathways and the impact of the islander kids and forcing weight divisions rather than age groups - that seems concerning. How big a grass roots impact is that?

btw - AndyRoo - the AFL website has a comprehensive broadcast guide for each match/each round (you can back track through the season too), for each metro and regional area. http://www.afl.com.au/broadcast%20guide/tabid/9451/default.aspx#locd=NSW - Rest of NSW&round=Round 19 It's interesting to see how the matches are carved up, especially regarding Fox and their strategic interests in SA and WA. “Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” Kofi Annan

AndyRoo - The AFL FRiday night timeslot is 8.30pm, generally speaking, that's vs a Melb game time of 7.40pm. Last Friday, - Perth wias on 3 hour delay, 8.30pm (local) Adelaide 1.5 hr delay, 8.30pm (inc regional SA and Broken Hill). Tassie live (7.30pm), Vic metro, regional and Wagga Prime - 1 hr delay, 8.30pm NSW and QLD 4 hr delay, but live on Fox, 11.30pm FTA, and 7.30 pm Fox Live into Darwin (7pm) Canberra and far sth coast NSW - 2 hr delay, 9.30pm Across regional NSW it was mostly 3 hr delay, 10.30pm, but, Southern Cross central has a 1 hr delay at 8.30pm, do you get the picture that there's a huge variability across the country - - btw - Personally I know that if you have the game on 2 or 3 radio stations, that it's hard to avoid the tempation to check the scores and work out whether it's worthwhile (committing to) watching the game on tele (esp as the 8.30pm start pushes it so late - past 11pm for the finish). The networks would love to go live against the gate, of course. basic reality - an AFL game provides roughly 120 minutes of action time. an NRL game provides 80 minutes of action time. 8 games each - each weekend, and the AFL provides 50% more tv product. That's as basic an equation as you can look at to start from - - everything else is fine detail and market specific and broadcaster/advertiser relationships and strategies etc.