NRLW TV Deal

[Damien]

Build it and they will come. This sounds great for the womens game and along with the salary cap changes, that will see an average wage of $50k by 2027, will surely propel it onwards and upwards:

The NRLW will enter a brand new era this season after the announcement of a ground-breaking broadcast deal for the competition.

With 10 clubs now in the expanded NRLW, Nine has secured a deal to show every match live and free on the TV network and 9Now.

The 2023 season will go for 11 weeks with 48 matches to be played, as the Newcastle Knights look to retain the title. 

Nine's coverage will include a new NRLW production unit with over 100 hours of live coverage, the dedicated weekly magazine show NRLWrap to be shown on Nine and 9Now along with a weekly NRLW podcast.

https://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/news-2023-nrlw-draw-new-broadcast-deal-channel-nine-expanded-competition-salary-cap-exclusive/683f82ec-7b02-407f-bc6e-7c1760312ae3

[Copa]

That’s great coverage!

It’s a shame the women’s soccer World Cup has interfered with smooth NRLW stadium access though…

[HawkMan]

13 minutes ago, Copa said:

That’s great coverage!

It’s a shame the women’s soccer World Cup has interfered with smooth NRLW stadium access though…

Have seen some very entertaining women's league in Oz and here in England. I'm fully behind expansion in TV coverage of women's sport in general it's well overdue.

But as a soccer fan as well as League,  I'm disappointed FIFA have chosen Australia as hosts for the WC. No offense but it's totally unsuitable due to the time difference to where the game is strongest,  Europe and the US. The games are early or mid morning Europe time and middle of the night US or breakfast time. Hopefully FIFA won't ever have the men's event in Australia and New Zealand.

[Sports Prophet]

17 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

Have seen some very entertaining women's league in Oz and here in England. I'm fully behind expansion in TV coverage of women's sport in general it's well overdue.

But as a soccer fan as well as League,  I'm disappointed FIFA have chosen Australia as hosts for the WC. No offense but it's totally unsuitable due to the time difference to where the game is strongest,  Europe and the US. The games are early or mid morning Europe time and middle of the night US or breakfast time. Hopefully FIFA won't ever have the men's event in Australia and New Zealand.

That is an extraordinary cast @HawkMan, let’s see if you get any bites.  

[gingerjon]

3 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

That is an extraordinary cast @HawkMan, let’s see if you get any bites.  

One could bite, or one could just direct people to the bidding page on wiki for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Either way, the TV looks an excellent step forward. Too many pile-em-high double and triple headers but other than that another example of the NRLW's maturation.

[HawkMan]

3 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

That is an extraordinary cast @HawkMan, let’s see if you get any bites.  

It's not meant to be a " cast" just a sincere disappointment on my part. Here in UK and across Europe the women's game is exponentially growing, its extraordinary,  and this is a mistake by FIFA to hold it in Australia and NZ. Understandably they didn't realise the growth that would happen when they chose the hosts, but there's genuine disappointment in people I know who wanted to see the games, that this will now be difficult because of work commitments.

However,  On Topic,; great for NRLW,  I watch a fair bit of NRL,more than SL, and love both men's and women's versions.

[gingerjon]

Just now, HawkMan said:

It's not meant to be a " cast" just a sincere disappointment on my part. Here in UK and across Europe the women's game is exponentially growing, its extraordinary,  and this is a mistake by FIFA to hold it in Australia and NZ. Understandably they didn't realise the growth that would happen when they chose the hosts, but there's genuine disappointment in people I know who wanted to see the games, that this will now be difficult because of work commitments.

However,  On Topic,; great for NRLW,  I watch a fair bit of NRL,more than SL, and love both men's and women's versions.

There were no other genuine bids, mate. You could look it up.

[HawkMan]

24 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

There were no other genuine bids, mate. You could look it up.

Really? Very surprised at that, do you know why? Money presumably.

Apparently there's four bids for the 2027 tournament.  Germany,  Belgium and Netherlands; US and Mexico; South Africa,  and Brazil.

Edited April 27, 2023 by HawkMan

[Sports Prophet]

1 hour ago, HawkMan said:

It's not meant to be a " cast" just a sincere disappointment on my part. Here in UK and across Europe the women's game is exponentially growing, its extraordinary,  and this is a mistake by FIFA to hold it in Australia and NZ. Understandably they didn't realise the growth that would happen when they chose the hosts, but there's genuine disappointment in people I know who wanted to see the games, that this will now be difficult because of work commitments.

However,  On Topic,; great for NRLW,  I watch a fair bit of NRL,more than SL, and love both men's and women's versions.

Disappointment on your part… if you say so.

Mistake by FIFA… I don’t think so.

[Sports Prophet]

Great news for the NRLW. Sharkies to play their first season. Some double headers with the men sounds great.

Looking forward to having another team to support.

[DoubleD]

Anyone know how much 9 paid for this, if anything? Be good coverage regardless and excellent for commercial sponsorship potential with it being on FTA

[HartwoodHarvard]

3 hours ago, HawkMan said:

Have seen some very entertaining women's league in Oz and here in England. I'm fully behind expansion in TV coverage of women's sport in general it's well overdue.

Butas a soccer fan as well as League,  I'm disappointed FIFA have chosen Australia as hosts for the WC. No offense but it's totally unsuitable due to the time difference to where the game is strongest,  Europe and the US. The games are early or mid morning Europe time and middle of the night US or breakfast time. Hopefully FIFA won't ever have the men's event in Australia and New Zealand.

As a League fan,  I'm disappointed IRL have chosen France as hosts for the WC. No offense but it's totally unsuitable due to the time difference to where the game is strongest,  Australia and NZ. The games are early or midnight Australia time. 

[Dunbar]

Anyone have insight on how this will effect uk viewing.  Will they still be available on watchnrl.com 

[stookie]

4 hours ago, gingerjon said:

Too many pile-em-high double and triple headers but other than that another example of the NRLW's maturation.

Ehh, I've come to terms with it. The NRLW is very strong in terms of women's sport in Aus, but more generally is still in the growth phase. Some stand-alone matches are fine, but to increase exposure to fans of the men's teams, double headers with a men's game helps a lot, especially with new teams joining. Then, double and triple headers of women's games might be a condition with channel 9 to reduce costs in order to broadcast every match, in which case some of these would be very beneficial.

I hope we have more stand alone games in 5 years, but for the moment it is definitely a trade off that makes sense.

[stookie]

1 hour ago, Dunbar said:

Anyone have insight on how this will effect uk viewing.  Will they still be available on watchnrl.com 

Genuine question. Do you get the match replays on the NRL site for free in the UK? Not sure whether it's geo-blocked or not. Admittedly, it takes ~24 hrs to put them up, but the games are all available here.

Eg does this link get you to the NRLW grand final from last year?
https://www.nrl.com/watch/matches/?competition=161&round=7&season=2022&subType=Full+Match+Replay

[Oxford]

It's interesting how we change over time. I used to think it was great and celebrate if the NRL made great strides in any direction and now I couldn't care less.

 

[Futtocks]

12 minutes ago, stookie said:

Genuine question. Do you get the match replays on the NRL site for free in the UK? Not sure whether it's geo-blocked or not. Admittedly, it takes ~24 hrs to put them up, but the games are all available here.

Eg does this link get you to the NRLW grand final from last year?
https://www.nrl.com/watch/matches/?competition=161&round=7&season=2022&subType=Full+Match+Replay

Was last year's NRLW Grand Final shown on Nine or Fox?

While the above link shows the full match, WatchNRL only has extended highlights.

Edited April 27, 2023 by Futtocks

[stookie]

11 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Was last year's NRLW Grand Final shown on Nine or Fox?

While the above link shows the full match, WatchNRL only has extended highlights.

Nine, I think exclusively for the live broadcast.

OK, so I'm confused why WatchNRL matters then, unless it's to watch live?

[Futtocks]

4 minutes ago, stookie said:

Nine, I think exclusively for the live broadcast.

OK, so I'm confused why WatchNRL matters then, unless it's to watch live?

The point of a WatchNRL subscription is mainly to watch live matches outside Australia/New Zealand. At least, that's why I pay for it.

Okay, with many NRLW matches being played earlier in the day, that's silly o'clock for us UK viewers, but I'd still welcome the convenience of a single destination for both live and catch-up coverage.

[Dunbar]

1 hour ago, stookie said:

Genuine question. Do you get the match replays on the NRL site for free in the UK? Not sure whether it's geo-blocked or not. Admittedly, it takes ~24 hrs to put them up, but the games are all available here.

Eg does this link get you to the NRLW grand final from last year?
https://www.nrl.com/watch/matches/?competition=161&round=7&season=2022&subType=Full+Match+Replay

Yes, I can use that link.

[Click]

1 hour ago, Futtocks said:

The point of a WatchNRL subscription is mainly to watch live matches outside Australia/New Zealand. At least, that's why I pay for it.

Okay, with many NRLW matches being played earlier in the day, that's silly o'clock for us UK viewers, but I'd still welcome the convenience of a single destination for both live and catch-up coverage.

You don't have to watch them live on WatchNRL - After the match completes, they just edit out all the pre-match, half time talk and post-match stuff and leave the Rugby there to be viewed. 

[Dunbar]

1 hour ago, Oxford said:

It's interesting how we change over time. I used to think it was great and celebrate if the NRL made great strides in any direction and now I couldn't care less.

 

When you genuinely couldn't care less, you won't post on the topic.  Till then, you do.

[Futtocks]

56 minutes ago, Click said:

You don't have to watch them live on WatchNRL - After the match completes, they just edit out all the pre-match, half time talk and post-match stuff and leave the Rugby there to be viewed. 

Yes, that's the case for Fox broadcasts. I was asking what the situation was for the women's games, which are on Nine, because WatchNRL only has highlights for the last women's Grand Final.

[The Rocket]

5 hours ago, DoubleD said:

Anyone know how much 9 paid for this, if anything? Be good coverage regardless and excellent for commercial sponsorship potential with it being on FTA

And there`s the rub. I was fooled as well, after initially thinking that we were going to get a Saturday night prime-time FTA match, albeit I assumed on a secondary channel , but on reading the article more carefully it appears `live and free` only means that you can stream it for free on 9now and in fact in the 9 round NRLW regular season there will only be 3 games on genuine FTA.

The part that really pisses me off is that the recently released union viewing figures showed that Nine claims that its` Saturday night super (LOL) rugby Nine/Stan cumulative figure was 179k, with about 50k of those being FTA viewers, the balance streaming. I believe last year NRLW was rating cumulatively on average nearly 200k per game when shown on both Fox and channel9 with the FTA component being anywhere between 50 and 100k. So why aren`t we getting a genuine FTA game every week.

Bloody Channel 9, the sooner we see the back of those bastards the better. BTW, I`ll bet not one single dollar changed hands for this so-called `ground-breaking deal` being trumpeted by Nine.

[DoubleD]

1 hour ago, The Rocket said:

And there`s the rub. I was fooled as well, after initially thinking that we were going to get a Saturday night prime-time FTA match, albeit I assumed on a secondary channel , but on reading the article more carefully it appears `live and free` only means that you can stream it for free on 9now and in fact in the 9 round NRLW regular season there will only be 3 games on genuine FTA.

The part that really pisses me off is that the recently released union viewing figures showed that Nine claims that its` Saturday night super (LOL) rugby Nine/Stan cumulative figure was 179k, with about 50k of those being FTA viewers, the balance streaming. I believe last year NRLW was rating cumulatively on average nearly 200k per game when shown on both Fox and channel9 with the FTA component being anywhere between 50 and 100k. So why aren`t we getting a genuine FTA game every week.

Bloody Channel 9, the sooner we see the back of those bastards the better. BTW, I`ll bet not one single dollar changed hands for this so-called `ground-breaking deal` being trumpeted by Nine.

9 are a really poor partner, I don’t understand why the NRL hasn’t ditched them and moved to another FTA, I thought they would at the last TV negotiations. They must have some dirt or something shady going on