Phil Rothfield: Ad-ridden and delayed Friday NRL telecast must go
FANS had to sit through no less than 77 ads on Channel Nine’s delayed telecast of the Bulldogs-Tigers golden point thriller.
Opinion
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RUGBY league fans had to sit through no less than 77 advertisements on Channel 9’s delayed telecast of the Bulldogs-Tigers golden-point thriller on Friday night.
We had one of the most exciting finishes we’ll probably get all season, yet it didn’t finish until 11.43pm, long after the next generation of fans had been tucked into bed.
Young fans who missed the extraordinary skills of boom halfback Luke Brooks and fullback James Tedesco before a magnificent Bulldogs comeback and a matchwinning field goal by part-time rookie five-eighth Moses Mbye.
What other business would show its top product when future customers are not watching?
On Friday night your columnist had the painstaking job of watching and counting every advertisement, network promo and news break with a notebook in one hand and a stopwatch in the other.
BUZZ: HIGHLIGHT, LOWLIGHT, TALKING POINTS
Just 12 minutes into the game we got a Nine news break, a network promo for Weekend Today, Sportsbet, VB, Dulux paints, Woolworths Easter eggs, I Select insurance, Bunnings, Steal Blue boots and Sportsbet again.
All up four minutes.
Then 11 minutes later a four-minute break: This time a Reno Rumble promo, Telstra, Sportsbet, Bunnings, Pepsi, Holden, Australian Super, IGA, Compare the Market insurance, KFC, Sportsbet again and a Today Show promo.
I won’t bore you with the rest of the night’s scheduling but let’s just say I was left confused whether to my buy my Easter eggs from Woolies, Coles, Big W or IGA, my paint from Bunnings, Mitre 10 or Masters or my weekend junk food from KFC, Hungry Jack’s or Oporto, or whether to buy a Holden, Nissan, Toyota or Golf next time I’m looking for new wheels.
Understandably, Nine pays half of the billion-dollar TV deal and has to get its money back somehow.
But this sort of coverage has to be one of the reasons why television ratings have fallen in recent years.
The AFL has one extra game every weekend but still manages to show every match live.
Somehow the NRL has to start doing the same by creating an extra timeslot.
Eventually it will happen, when Perth enters the competition.
This entire scheduling is a farce. On Friday night we had four glamour Sydney clubs playing at the same time, separated by only nine kilometres and competing against each other at the turnstiles for fans. And on Monday night we get the Cowboys playing Melbourne Storm in Townsville at 6pm local time, knowing 35 per cent of their fans live more than an hour away from the city.
Why couldn’t it have been played on Friday night?
Why couldn’t we have had the Bulldogs-Tigers live on Sunday afternoon, without the 77 advertisements?
In fairness, this television scheduling debacle is not the fault of CEO Dave Smith. He inherited it from John Grant and Shane Mattiske.
Next time the NRL has to do its own scheduling and tell the TV executives this is our game, our product, our fans and this is the way we’re running our business.
The NRL will still get well over $1 billion and the fans will get the coverage they deserve.
Photo relieved my pain
Being a Cronulla Sharks supporter can have its depressing and heartbreak moments.
We’ve never won a premiership, we’ve been broke (several times), we’ve been through the ASADA scandal and now we can’t win a game.
On Saturday night I saw one angry fan hand in his membership season tickets in disgust after the shattering loss to the Titans.
About an hour later on Twitter I saw this beautiful message with a photo that put it all into perspective.
“@PJMoseley88: Win, Loss, Draw — it’s these Moments that Matter
to me. #poppy #wearesharks #upupcronulla.”
Check out the lovely picture. For me it took away the pain of losing.
Stone shines like a diamond
They say Rick Stone is on about a quarter of the salary Wayne Bennett was getting at the Newcastle Knights the last few years.
The Knights are saving about $800,000 a year on the coaching staff since Bennett walked and even more following the departure of Darius Boyd.
Stone is doing a superb job with a number of players who struggled under Bennett’s style of coaching. Kade Snowden has grown a leg. They are playing tough but with more flair.
This is not a criticism of Bennett because he obviously left the place in good shape.
It does however say a lot for Stone’s ability to get the best out of footballers.
It’s not hard to tell they are enjoying their football a hell of a lot more this season.
SEE WHAT BUZZ HAD TO SAY IN HIS BLOG BELOW
Originally published as Phil Rothfield: Ad-ridden and delayed Friday NRL telecast must go
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