League to push for better TV schedule - National News - National - Sport - The Canberra Times
Rugby league’s new independent commission will demand a full-season schedule from its new television rights partner in 2013 after yesterday’s chief executives conference revealed league to be the highest ratings sport on Australian TV.
It claimed an extra 12 million cumulative viewers watched league compared with AFL in 2011.
In the first annual chairmen and chief executives conference involving the incoming commissioners, the 2011 season review revealed rugby league had a cumulative audience of 134 million viewers, without including a further 12 million in New Zealand.
The NRL also won the battle against the AFL on highest average ratings, taking out the top rankings on free-to-air and pay television, while audiences grew on the mediums by 1.3per cent and 16per cent respectively.
The results impressed the soon-to-be-commissioners, all of whom stood in agreement with the clubs that the new TV rights deal needed to reflect rugby league’s outright television audience dominance.
”They are a powerful set of results across the coverage of the game,” NRL chief executive David Gallop said.
”As we look towards media negotiations in the months ahead they are a reminder of rugby league’s value in the market.”
Commission chairman John Grant was just as buoyant, confident once the new body was in place that television rights would be the first matter on the agenda to develop the game.
”There will be a strong focus on getting a whole-of-game strategic plan in place,” Grant said.
”It is important that as we look towards a significant growth in revenue that there is a strategy that underpins the way that money is used.
”The commission is a unique opportunity to review existing plans without the constraints of the game’s previous structure.”
The meeting involved lengthy discussion of TV rights negotiations. With the support of the clubs, the commission would strongly pursue the concept of a ”full-season” schedule with days and timeslots determined at the start of the year, unlike the rolling schedule that exists at present.
Viewing figures also showed that rugby league won four of the top five sporting program for the year on free-to-air, with OriginIII the highest rating program of any sport in the country.
Meanwhile, more than 35,000 children entered the game in 2011, with upwards of 480,000 participating in regular competition, while another one million took part in some sort of clinic. The two-day conference concludes today.
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