The Australian netball landscape, and potentially women’s sport in this country, could be transformed next season, as the television rights deal for the sport is being negotiated.
Roy Masters revealed in today’s Sydney Morning Herald that Channel Nine and Telstra are the likely winners from the deal, with current broadcaster Ten set to lose the rights.
Currently, Channel Ten plays one ANZ Championship game a week live, on Sundays at midday. The rest are shown live on Fox Sports.
Netball Australia has expressed their surprise at the reports from News Corp and Fairfax that New Zealand teams will be chopped from the competition in a joint statement with Netball New Zealand.
“Netball New Zealand (NNZ) and Netball Australia (NA) are surprised by the speculation and information that was published in Australian media today.”
“We are close to reaching agreement with key parties in regard to the shape and format of the 2017 competition, and look forward to making a joint announcement next week.”
Under the new reported deal, Nine will show games live in prime time around the country, and will sign on with Telstra as digital partners for five years.
All the New Zealand teams will be cut from the current competition, with three new Australian teams to be added to the mix. It is believed NRL club the Melbourne Storm are interested in bringing a team to Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, while AFL club Collingwood may start a team in Melbourne.
The third team under the slated new arroungement is likely to come from Sydney to accompany the NSW Swifts.
This means that the Tactix, Steel, Magic, Mystics and Pulse will all be chopped from the competition, as matches between Australian and New Zealand teams fail to rate for the current broadcaster.
If the new deal is locked in, the bump to coverage is going to be significant, as is the boost in investment from the NRL and AFL clubs.
All of that said, it’s clear the game’s governing body has a different view if they’re surprised by the reports. It could be that the New Zealand clubs are going nowhere.
Melbourne Storm CEO Dave Donaghy told News Corp that while it was not set in stone, the Sunshine Coast offered a great opportunity:
“We have expressed an interest in securing a licence. Netball is the No.1 female participation sport in the nation and there are 6000 registered participants in the Sunshine Coast catchment.
“We haven’t been informed by Netball Australia of our success or not in the bid process and once it’s finalised, there would still be a licence agreement to complete.
“There is still some way to go but it is an exciting opportunity.”
With the success of the WBBL on Ten, Channel Nine having recently shown the Australian Jillaroos vs New Zeland Kiwi Ferns on free-to-air last Friday, and with the AFL kicking off a women’s series next year, women’s sport is finally coming to the fore in the Aussie television landscape.
Now it appears netball could be an integral player in this brave new world.
josh
Roar Rookie
Pretty sure the Storm have a QCup affiliate on the Sunshine Coast.
CG2430
Guest
Maybe it's a similar thing to Melbourne City FC - bloke who has shares in Melbourne Storm is part of the consortium buying Melbourne Heart. Not the same as Melbourne Storm buying Melbourne Heart but mis-reported as such.
CG2430
Guest
That was back in the era of One being a sport channel. Fox Sports has every match live now, with the Sunday 12:00 match simulcast on Ten.
MatthewSkellett
Guest
I think it would be a mistake to cut out NZ franchises -why can't there be room for all of us at the same table including the new teams - it would be a retrograde step in my opinion :-/
Sam
Guest
this was always going to happen. I was hoping for a complete cut. Games between NZ and Australia whether club or country is just an overkill these days. As a kiwi, its quite embarrassing watching the NZ teams lose against the Australian teams. In fact the manner they lose just puts me off from watching another ANZ game. We simply haven't been competitive enough and it doesnt help when we have a much smaller pool of players to form 5 teams. Good for Netball Australia and I hope netball in NZ gets the rude awakening they deserve. I can predict the sports profile to go downhill, We cant even fill the small stadiums during the ANZ games.
Mary Cash
Guest
Interesting concept. How many imports will each team be allowed? Are we just going to invite the top players to play in the competition or are we going to use home grown. I would also be interested to see when the TV coverage will be aired because the current coverage is not good.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
According to the Masters article, Netball Australia is eyeing off the biggest broadcast deal in womens sport in Australia, and the investment coming from the AFL and NRL clubs, and their sponsors, sounds significant. The other interesting thing is that the NRL appears to be encouraging support of the new Netball competition as a counter to the new National Womens League (which has already secured a broadcast deal and sponsorship deals) - although the AFL clubs will be involved in both comps.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
It's interesting that the Storm would be investing in a team to play out of the Sunshine Coast. Whatever the truth is, it is easy to imagine that people would be planning an all-Australian competition to benefit ratings. This was very similar to the FFA thinking over replacing the Nix with a 3rd Sydney team.
Sportz
Guest
Patrick, if it ends up being as Roy Masters suggested, the NZ teams would not be "cut from the competition". There would simply be two new totally separate competitions, an Australian one and a NZ one. Just as it used to be up until 2008 when the ANZ Championship started.
josh
Roar Rookie
Not sure what the deal was with Ten, they used to show more than 1 match live, Saturday Sunday and Monday games i thought. To be honest most of the NZ teams aren't a match for the Australian ones. But this article reads like Ch9 trying to pull WSC on netball. It'd be great, and I'd think most of the NZ teams would simply fill the spots on any new Australian team.