Australia’s National Rugby League has conceded that it and broadcast partners, pay-television operator Fox Sports and commercial broadcaster Nine, need to rethink their scheduling strategy after recording substantial ratings drops this season.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper said Nine’s average audience was down 3.8 per cent – a loss of almost 900,000 viewers across the 26-week competition.
Fox Sports ratings suffered more greatly, falling 8.5 per cent after being down just 2.6 per cent at the season’s halfway stage.
The ratings coincide with the first year of the NRL’s record broadcast deal with the two companies.
Nine and Fox in August 2012 signed five-year deals, from 2013 to 2017, collectively worth A$1.025bn (€717.1m/$957.5m), or A$205m per year.
The ratings decline has also coincided with the NRL’s first-ever fixed schedule draw, which television executives have primarily blamed for the downturn.
Nine and Fox were also hit by proven ratings winners such as Parramatta, St George Illawarra, Brisbane and Wests Tigers failing to make the league’s finals.
Committing to a fixed schedule in 2014, NRL football operations head Todd Greenberg said the league would work more closely with the broadcasters to identify and prioritise the teams most likely to be contending for the premiership, rather than relying on “conservative” selections.
“There’s no doubt that in the first year of a fixed schedule, the broadcasters and the game were conservative in our decision making,” he said. “We’ve got to push hard to get the right answers. Crowds and ratings are at the forefront of our thinking. Something we might have to do is sit down and look through all the teams; their rosters and coaching staff, to determine who will most likely be in the mix.”