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Broadcast options for Australian Rugby

VassMan

Darby Loudon (17)
I would have thought 10 would have promoted the game more via the news in the week leading up to the game.
 

RugbyReg

Rocky Elsom (76)
Staff member
Something needs to change. My mate, who is a diehard Wallabies fan, played rugby with him for years, texted me at halftime saying he only just found that the game was on.


I tell you what needs to change - you referring to him as a die-hard Wallaby fan. As if a die hard Wallaby fan didn't know a Bledisloe Cup game was on.

What does he expect? A personal invitation hand written by John Eales?
 

Dctarget

Tim Horan (67)
What's this bizarre head in the sand shit? He used to come to the Wallabies test matches with me whenever they were in town, we'd watch the games at the pub. We know fans are dropping like flies. Maybe I should've said "former diehard" but the point remains. This is the biggest test match of the year and people aren't watching it. We're clearly not going to change that by saying fans need to try harder.
 
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half

Dick Tooth (41)
Wallabies ratings are falling.

HHHHHMMMMmmm many reasons are put forward.

Hidden way on Fox is popular, as is poor RA management practices is another popular theory.

I have posted for so so so so so so so so long this was going to happen if we did not establish a local domestic competition. The importance of spreading the message often and to more areas to me has always been more than obvious, more inept, incompetent if not done. Today it is negligent not to do so.

The issue has always been about money and its never the right time. Each year it will be harder.

The lack of grassroots management combined with so few professional teams has an effect.

I have a client who often tells me a business fact, a lost client or in our case fan is very hard to win back if they have found something else and many rugby fans have taken to the AFL and they will be hard to get back unless we can offer a local domestic competition.

Rugby no longer has the funds nor the intellect to establish a LDC, we need private capital before we reach a point people won't invest.
 

sendit

Bob Loudon (25)
What's this bizarre head in the sand shit? He used to come to the Wallabies test matches with me whenever they were in town, we'd watch the games at the pub. We know fans are dropping like flies. Maybe I should've said "former diehard" but the point remains. This is the biggest test match of the year and people aren't watching it. We're clearly not going to change that by saying fans need to try harder.

What do you suggest would get your mate back on board then?

Cause at the moment it doesn’t sound like anything short of the Wallabies starting to win every test match so he can jump straight back on that bandwagon, which has nothing to do with promotions or marketing
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
What's this bizarre head in the sand shit? He used to come to the Wallabies test matches with me whenever they were in town, we'd watch the games at the pub. We know fans are dropping like flies. Maybe I should've said "former diehard" but the point remains. This is the biggest test match of the year and people aren't watching it. We're clearly not going to change that by saying fans need to try harder.


Surely he needs to re-engage if he has any interest in it. I'm not sure what Rugby Australia could ever do.

If someone's not even willing to follow a couple of social media accounts or have friends who are interested and will keep you in the loop on something I'm not sure what more can be done to reach that person.

People generally spend a lot of time online and that experience ends up pretty heavily curated and targeted for them through their actions and the intrusiveness of google/facebook etc.

Why would you end up being up to date with what is happening in a sport/tv show/entertainment product you show absolutely zero interest in?
 

hoggy

Nev Cottrell (35)
What do you suggest would get your mate back on board then?

Cause at the moment it doesn’t sound like anything short of the Wallabies starting to win every test match so he can jump straight back on that bandwagon, which has nothing to do with promotions or marketing

I watched the game on Sunday, and my missus walked in and said oh are the Wallabies playing, so there is something about rugby's prominence in the media, look any die-hard would have known the game was on, but drop a level and you could easily have not known.
The point is what do we do about it, when a competitive Wallabies against the All Blacks is easily the most prominent tool the RA have.
But as half says above not having a genuine domestic presence below Test rugby means you are forever relying on one off sugar hits, and the issue just get aggravated when as has always happened after a sugar hit 99% of our resources then get put into getting another sugar hit.
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
I watched the game on Sunday, and my missus walked in and said oh are the Wallabies playing, so there is something about rugby's prominence in the media, look any die-hard would have known the game was on, but drop a level and you could easily have not known.
The point is what do we do about it, when a competitive Wallabies against the All Blacks is easily the most prominent tool the RA have.


If a rugby fan isn't even making their partner aware of a Bledisloe Cup game being on and trying to get them interested in it, what hope does RA have of reaching them with improved marketing?
 

Derpus

Nathan Sharpe (72)
There was a giant billboard in the middle of Crows nest for a few weeks leading up to it. Saw a bunch of adds and social media.

Shits obviously at a low ebb but it's gunna take a long time to rebuild fan engagement - gunna take a lot more than a few ads.
 

sendit

Bob Loudon (25)
I watched the game on Sunday, and my missus walked in and said oh are the Wallabies playing, so there is something about rugby's prominence in the media, look any die-hard would have known the game was on, but drop a level and you could easily have not known.
The point is what do we do about it, when a competitive Wallabies against the All Blacks is easily the most prominent tool the RA have.
But as half says above not having a genuine domestic presence below Test rugby means you are forever relying on one off sugar hits, and the issue just get aggravated when as has always happened after a sugar hit 99% of our resources then get put into getting another sugar hit.

It’s all anacdotal isn’t it, my partner has watched 5 games of Union in her life? If that?

Without me speaking to her about it prior, asked if I was going to the pub to watch the wallabies play on Sunday

The infos there, just got to pay some level of attention to what’s going on around you
 

RugbyReg

Rocky Elsom (76)
Staff member
personally I was impressed to see prominent advertising pre-game at Central and Roma Station - the two biggest / busiest train stations in Brisbane, in the lead up to the game. Saw it promoted in print and heard it talked about on the radio.

I ask again, what more can RA do? I'd suggest they'll focus most of their marketing budget on selling tickets to upcoming games rather than going big on trying to get people to watch on tv
 

Jimmy_Crouch

Peter Johnson (47)
Must be something of value when we go close. There has been 18 articles on foxsports.com.au about rugby since yesterday. Doubt they put that many out for the entire SRAu competition.
 

Bandar

Bob Loudon (25)
Must be something of value when we go close. There has been 18 articles on foxsports.com.au about rugby since yesterday. Doubt they put that many out for the entire SRAu competition.

More positive rugby articles in the last 24 hours than in the past year...

Maybe Fox are suggesting that they can play nice seeing there we are close to finalising a broadcast deal and they are really keen to retain the rights?
 

Number 7

Darby Loudon (17)
More positive rugby articles in the last 24 hours than in the past year.

Maybe Fox are suggesting that they can play nice seeing there we are close to finalising a broadcast deal and they are really keen to retain the rights?
It has been noticable that Fox has been doing more promotion of Rugby this week wheeling out Tony Squires to host and cross promoting on his Monday sports show which Justin Harrison featured on last week.


What's also interesting is the increased coverage in the last 5 days on Channel 9, possibly in response. Channel 9 via their mastheads (Fairfax newspapers) have gone from denying the Stan-centric bid for rugby rights only 3 weeks ago, to having Karl Stefanovic acknowledge and emphasise both the Channel 9 bid for rugby (quote "how exciting!") and cover the Bledisloe on both Friday and Monday in the last week during the sports coverage. Given Channel 9's business model of cheerleading their own product (NRL) as a priority, I see this as progress of sorts and a sign that Channel 9 think they may win the bif and that free to air could be good for the sport if NRL-style cross promotion is part of the deal.
 

RedsRugbyfan101

Allen Oxlade (6)
What's also interesting is the increased coverage in the last 5 days on Channel 9, possibly in response.


Very interesting indeed. The Australian Financial Review (owned by 9) published this article last night

https://www.afr.com/companies/media...-for-rugby-reaches-pointy-end-20201014-p564x5

"Rugby Australia could make a decision on its broadcast partner by the end of the week following a tightly contested battle between incumbent rights holder Foxtel and Nine. Sources told The Australian Financial Review that discussions with both Nine and Foxtel were well advanced, and both were still, separately, going back and forth on various items. They said Rugby Australia could decide by the end of the week, having held a series of meetings with Nine and Foxtel executives over the past week."

Looks like Channel 9 is well and truly in the running to pick up the rights. With two parties interested this will help drive up the price.
 

Rob42

Nicholas Shehadie (39)
It has been noticable that Fox has been doing more promotion of Rugby this week wheeling out Tony Squires to host and cross promoting on his Monday sports show which Justin Harrison featured on last week.


What's also interesting is the increased coverage in the last 5 days on Channel 9, possibly in response. Channel 9 via their mastheads (Fairfax newspapers) have gone from denying the Stan-centric bid for rugby rights only 3 weeks ago, to having Karl Stefanovic acknowledge and emphasise both the Channel 9 bid for rugby (quote "how exciting!") and cover the Bledisloe on both Friday and Monday in the last week during the sports coverage. Given Channel 9's business model of cheerleading their own product (NRL) as a priority, I see this as progress of sorts and a sign that Channel 9 think they may win the bif and that free to air could be good for the sport if NRL-style cross promotion is part of the deal.

The cross-promotion on FTA TV is critical to success. Other sports (A-League, netball) have games on FTA, but with negligible ratings, because no-one knows it's there. Super Rugby replays on Ten for the last few years the same. You need a network that wants to make rugby a key part of their programming, like NRL or AFL. Otherwise, FTA games are meaningless.
 

wamberal

Phil Kearns (64)
The cross-promotion on FTA TV is critical to success. Other sports (A-League, netball) have games on FTA, but with negligible ratings, because no-one knows it's there. Super Rugby replays on Ten for the last few years the same. You need a network that wants to make rugby a key part of their programming, like NRL or AFL. Otherwise, FTA games are meaningless.


Chicken and egg, innit. I suspect that international rugby has a bigger impact on the public consciousness than netball or the A-League. If we keep winning, that might lead to higher ratings. Not sure what else we could do? The drawn game definitely got more airtime on FTA news bulletins; if we win at Eden Park, we can expect even more.
 
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