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Opinion

Channel Nine looking to tear up their contract with NRL

28th March, 2020
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Roar Guru
28th March, 2020
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With the coronavirus causing the NRL to suspend the season, Channel Nine have threatened to tear up the viewing contracts with the NRL.

Now, a few questions have been asked.

Can Channel Nine do that?

How will the NRL recover from it?

And will this end the NRL?

Allow me to answer these three questions.

1. Can Channel Nine do this?
As it’s a technical breach of contract, I believe they can. However, even though they can, they won’t. Channel Nine needs the NRL as they get so much of their income from them.

Channel 9 commentators Andrew Johns and Brad Fittler talking.

(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

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2. How will the NRL recover from this?
The NRL has already planned to reschedule the season for Round 3 to continue in June at the earliest or September at the latest. If the contract is torn up, they’ll have to pick another channel or just stick with Fox, who aren’t planning to tear it up. This would mean everyone will be needing Kayo to watch the games.

3. Will this end the NRL?
For the season it will, and for 2021 onwards, it could. The NRL needs free-to-air viewing, so as much as they can rely on Fox and Kayo, that will be for borrowed time.

We all love the game of footy. No matter who you go for and what differences you have with anyone else, the one similarity is the game we love. When people ask me my favourite season, I always say footy.

The NRL needs to resume in June. Also, the game should continue with crowds in attendance.

That’s two months away and more than enough time for this coronavirus situation to die down.

The game is 80 minutes of our lives we can enjoy watching as a cut from life and our worries.

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