Please god don’t let channel nine get the next rugby league broadcast rights contract

Now everyone gather around and join me in prayer. Dear God, we thank you for the wonderful game of rugby league and the way it gets better to watch with every beer. We thank you for the fact that those isolationist in the Shire not having won a premiership and for the vaugeries of the game like how it is that the dragons can’t beat the raiders in Canberra no matter how far apart they are on the ladder. But most of all god we pray that channel nine doesn’t get the rights to show rugby league anymore
amen.

Hopefully God's listening because I am well and truly sick of channel nine and their so called sports coverage. Its not just the live to air camera angle that select the worst possible camera angle, the replays of the bird landing in back play while a line break is being made it’s the fact that they just don’t respect the game.

So its time for a message for the Federal Communications minister – you granted the free to air tv channels free access to additional channels including a significant chunk of bandwidth for high definition tv under the assumption that they were going to use it for high definition broadcasts – ie sport where you need clarity to see the fast moving ball, if the channels are not going to respect your original grant then take back the license. Its not like the Packers are going to generate any more bad publicity than they currently do.

So why now, well here we are going for the next rights contract and channel nine are not only baulking at paying a fair cost but they are also start suggesting even more conditions which will impact on the running of the game. (boys if you want some unobtrusive suggestions on revenue generation check out http://therollingmaul.blogspot.com/)

Take channel 10 for example – they buy a share in the rights to AFL and they will not only put it on live TV around Australia (despite it rating less than a 2am repeat of the love boat – in Sydney and Brisbane) but they also put it only three channels at once and replay it again later that night and later in the week. Channel 7 also put it on the main and high definition channels at once and put so many repeats on free to air tv that people in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia all don’t see the need to subscribe to pay tv.

What do we get on channel nine, do they put it on 3D TV - No, do they put it on high definition TV – No, do they replay the game in the middle of the night - No. Do we get to watch the highest quality games of the round like 1st Storm Vs 4th Broncos – or do they pick two sydney teams despite it being the worst conceivable game of the round ie Parramatta Vs Bulldogs.

Instead what does channel nine do – sit back and enjoy the highest rating programs of the year while dictating terms to the NRL , we want more advertising opportunities, we don’t want you to kick off until we are ready, we want more more more. David Gallopp time to stand up to channel nine and tell them to f..k off.

Why for instance can’t I sit back on Saturday afternoon and watch the Jim beam cup on ABC 2 while the club rugby is on ABC 1. I would prefer to watch the Jim beam cup to Titans and Eels. In fact the Wenty magpies have more big names than their first grade side so why can’t I watch them play a game that no one else is paying to broadcast. (wouldn't extra coverage generate more interest particularly for local clubs). Well that's because channel nine wont let the league broadcast it as it has the rights.

Well its time you took that license back of channel nine for failing to broadcast cricket football or in fact any other sport on their channel – and instead putting diagnosis murder and murder she wrote on it wall to wall neither of which was produced in high def. Why channel nine did you feel compelled to create a tv channel for women when you had the rights to so much sport and having done so why the hell did you use your high definition channel. That’s it you had your chance so pack up your girly channel and f..k off back to Melbourne where you belong.