Thank goodness the finals are coming around because the delayed telecast on Channel Nine ruined the Tigers/Eels clash on Sunday. If you were watching the game delayed and knew that the time was 5:59pm when Luke Burt was lining up the kick to tie the game, you would have known that he was bound to miss.
A Channel Nine game never crosses into the news.
The telecast is so predictable. How would you have been if you were an Eels or Tigers fan and couldn’t get out to the game and you accidentally looked at your watch just before Burt was going to take the kick?
All tension that was built up throughout such a great contest would have been removed at that instance.
How unfair is that?
Another instance in where Nine’s delayed telecast is so predictable is that whenever a try is scored, the broadcast will shoot off to commercials. Therefore, when a team is lining up for a drop-out or a 40-20 kick is successful and advertisements start running, you know that a try will not be scored in the next set of six.
If, however, Channel Nine don’t go to a break after a try, you know that another try is to follow suit very quickly.
Ever watched the first Friday Night Football game just for the sake of it but are really waiting for the second one? Isn’t it frustrating to hear Ray Warren say “stay tuned, we have a game coming that goes right down to the wire.”
Rabs obviously doesn’t care that the viewer wants to watch the first 65 minutes of the game.
I’m really looking forward to the finals and live footy. I won’t have to worry about hiding my phone and watch or prevent myself from checking the internet.
What do you suggest Channel Nine do next season to stop them from being so predictable?
StevieBoy
Guest
The reason for the 4pm games for Footy or any other sport in Australia that has the rights to free to air tv, is that Channel Nine in particular but I'm sure channel seven does as well but for Sunday they want good ratings leading into the news and want you to watch there news coverage rather than rival channels like seven that have been winnning the ratings wars for years now. So that is why they have a delayed telecast. And my pick is they won't be changing that strategy anytime soon. Channel 9 want to be on top so thats why they have delayed telecast of anything except for finals. Very shifty. I agree though it is annoying, but thats TV for you even though its free to air they are making money, from what we choose to watch. One day free to air TV will be fazed out and replaced with Pay TV.
Scamp
Guest
Thank goodness AFL is not on Nine. The government should take a look at them whether they should keep their license to run a tv company. They constantly do this type of thing. They do it to all Australia when cricket is on. Take their license away!
ac
Guest
Yep channel 9 is very very poor in what it does for League.
ptovey01
Roar Pro
This is where the rugby channel in NZ is awesome. Not sure how much patronage it gets, Does anyone know? I guess it would be quite a cheap channel to run if you owned the rights to the games and played replays of classic matches etc etc. Maybe the new Independent commission could look at that.
Alister
Guest
Well I guess there are really two options.... 1/ status quo 2/ remove the anti-siphoning laws and open it up to all parties. The likelihood then is Fox Sports will outbid everyone else, and all NRL will be live. This will then result in all the whiners complaining they have to pay to watch the NRL. Situation 2 is exactly what we have in New Zealand, and to be honest, if you can afford Sky, it is worth it. No ads during any NRL. All games live where possible. No black outs etc etc.
Norm
Guest
Don't bother watching the 2nd Friday night or Sunday afternoon games Adrian for the problems you've highlighted. Live radio beats delayed TV any day. Maybe the NRL & Nine should explore a 3.45PM Sunday kick off. Nine could use a post game show as a lead in to the news.
oikee
Guest
I just want a channel that gives me rugby league 24/7. Is that so hard to do for a t/v pay network. Imagine a F.T.A network with anything rugby league, 24/7. No cooking shows, no american actors, no other sports, thats all i ask? am i asking to much.?
ptovey01
Roar Pro
Do what they do in the UK. Use the red button on your controller. The BBC does it well, I remember they had on some, Football/Soccer, and the rugby 7's and another sport and by pressing the red button you picked what ever one you wanted. Not sure how many bands each digital channel has been allowed here, but i'm sure it would be similar tot he UK
ptovey01
Roar Pro
I agree with point 1, re the timing. However, I must disagree with your assertions after that. I was recently in NZ and watched the channel 9 game of the day on Sky sports (Fox equivalent). It was the Dragons and the Roosters. The times where Rabs was calling "we'll be back in just a few minutes" or something along those lines it was only a second or 2 before he started talking again. Then I thought maybe they do the commentary with a delay, but it could not have been due to the fact that it was a live feed to Sky without ad breaks. As for showing it live. this could not happen give the current scheduling or you will have the overlap of a live game on Fox and a live game on 9. Doc Brown has the right idea.
Ian
Guest
It was the same thing on the delayed Fox telecast. Our family discussed the same thing, as Fox go straight to the 7.30 game with no post match. Living in AFL dominated state, this was our only chance at watching the game. The Warriors this week are on a 8 hour delay into Victoria. In New Zealand (as mentioned above by Hanzo), every NRL game is shown live and uninterrupted. With relatives arriving in a couple of weeks, they're in for a shock as their sport will only be shown in the early hours. What an embrassment!
Gareth
Guest
I'd obviously prefer a free-to-air option, but for now I'm happy to fork out some ungodly sum for Foxtel just to have ad-free football. The late Friday game and Sunday arvo games are unwatchable with the way Channel 9 presents them. Obviously, league doesn't lend itself well to ad breaks the same way cricket or AFL do, but there's gotta be a better solution than packing 50 minutes of ads into a 120-minute telecast of an 80 minute game. At the very least, they could stop cutting portions of the game to fit in more ads, but as Jeff said, the best option seems to be Channel 9 losing the contract. We might end up in a "better the devil you know" situation, but surely Channel 7 couldn't do any worse with commentators than the deliberately inflammatory Gould, or absolute dribblers Johns and Fittler, who struggle to even talk much less offer insight.
Brissie Kid
Guest
I'm sure I read when golden point was brought in that to overcome this concern Channel 9 would run the game past 6pm. Wasn't there a game where Preston Campbell kicked a field goal in golden point for Penrith over Cronulla and that was about 6.01pm or something. I remember the coverage ending within about 3 seconds of the ref blowing his whistle. I guess we won't know for sure until the next time it happens. Probably this Sunday!
Renegade
Guest
Great Post.....totally agree, they need to show the delayed coverage as if it was live and end the game 5-10 mins before 6pm and include a post game - segment. I think this would eliminate the predictability element. I don't mind it being delayed if the telecast is shown as though it's live.....but an ad break every 5 minutes sort of kills the excitement, as stated above.
Springs
Guest
There was about ten minutes left in the game and the time was around 5.40. I thought we may actually see golden point, but alas, five minutes of ads followed and Luke Burt took the kick at 5.57. For an eels fan it was pretty hard to take, especially after the break down the left edge after the siren.
docbrown
Guest
The NRL should definitely bring in the second Sunday game. Start the coverage at 1:30pm with the first game to kickoff at 1:45pm. The second game could kick off at 3:30pm and both could be shown live or on a slight delay. If there are 4 QLD teams in the comp, you can guarantee a QLD team each week boosting that audience. You'd have at least 4 different sets of team fans watching both matches - you could appeal to 4 different states/regions - much easier to get follow through fans during the day then at night - plus of course general rugby league fans watching both. If it was broadcast nationally, both games would get 1,000,000+ viewers regularly, plus there'd be enough time to fit ads in before and inbetween matches without ruining the telecast. Then if there's a Perth team in the comp, the 3rd match could be over there at 4pm on Fox (6pm EST) or in NZ at 2pm (12pm EST) to avoid any clashing timetables.
Jeff
Guest
Adrian, you asked the question "What could Channel9 do next year", the best answer is "get the hell out of our sport"!!!!! They are like the spoilt child that has a toy, doesn't play with it, but won't let anyone else use it. Good article mate
Ramo
Guest
exactly rite Adrian - which is why i never watch the 2nd friday night game or the sunday arvo game. would rather listen to it on the radio than watch the game with 500 commercials!!
Mark
Guest
Totally agree, Before he took the kick, I looked at my watch and could tell there is no time for golden point.
Willy
Guest
The Australian free to air sports coverage is ridiculously behind the times. Why is it that I can watch my choice of up to five Premier League games simultaneously on a Saturday night, but when anything is on free to air I'm at the mercy of clowns at Channel Nine and Seven? Big events like the Olympics are even worse, with delayed coverage of events common. Do these people realise we live in the Internet age, where results of any sport you can care to imagine are easy to obtain at any time of the day or night? Stop insulting us.
Hanzo
Guest
Living in NZ i didnt realize how spoilt we are in regards to NRL coverage till i spent some time in Sydney about 2 months ago. I'm pretty sure SkyTV NZ is the only channel that broadcast every game live and commercial free. I'm not sure how people can watch a footy match with commercials. It just breaks the tension that builds whenever there is a closely fought contest. and yes the placement of said commercials do give away a lot about how the match progresses.