The Greatest Red Tape of All

Pre Season.

It's a funny time of the year isn't it? Teams scurrying around to fill their rosters, players working their backsides off to make it in a first grade squad and us the fans trying to get a gauge of how the hopes of our clubs will go in the coming year. The most direct way of doing this as a fan (of which I am one) is through watching the pre season. Whether its the World Club Series in the north of England, or a trial match in the Central West of NSW, it all has meaning to us as fans.

Now, with a number of trials being played outside of Sydney or far away from my home base (yes I know I should travel out of the Sutherland Shire more!) the only logical and available solutions for many fans is to attempt to watch trials and pre season games on TV or online. Unfortunately as we've seen in the media over the last week or so, the red tape related to this is bordering on ludicrous.

Having read (and completely agreed with) Steve Mascord's piece in Fairfax media over the weekend, we have a bit of a problem on our hands don't we?

Why are fans and not-for-profit organisations - mainly community & online radio services such as RadioHub and fellow networks being denied the right to call matches? I hear you say money. What money?

Most of these matches involve teams laden with Under 20's and reserve grade players hoping to find their meal ticket to a NRL future. Furthermore, there are a lot of up-and-coming broadcasters & journalists attempting to get a start in the industry, world who would die to get an opportunity to call NRL-type matches - and subsequently be seen by the larger networks - opportunities that can even benefit the official broadcasters down the road. Those broadcast partners, along with the NRL and to a lesser extent the clubs, need to look at the bigger picture and see who they could really be hurting in the long run.

As mentioned above, Radiohub (disclaimer: I had the pleasure of working with them in the second half of the 2015 NSWRL Season) are an online streaming radio service who call VB NSW Cup along with Ron Massey Cup. An opportunity like calling NRL pre-season matches would not only be a hell of an experience for the young guys working on the team (as well as the old fellas!), but would also open up a much larger market base for such radio networks, who heavily rely on word of mouth and occasional advertising using their limited resources.

Mascord's article also touches on how Telstra came out last season and denied anyone the rights to broadcast these February clashes. In regards to the World Club Challenge and the Charity Shield, this is fair enough, as they're shown on Free to Air or Pay TV! But for trials that have no bearing on the NRL, or on the companies that have such an interest in it, it's simply not fair for the end user.

For mine, this shows the dollar-above-everything nature that has developed in our great game. Despite little or no money being made by the parties interested in broadcasting trial games, there has been no shift in the attitude from those who hold the power.

Adding another twist to this tale is that even though the current TV deal has not been completed yet, Channel 9 still have the rights to the pre season. However looking closely at these details, a source of Mascord's noted that the contracts were 'ambiguous at best'. Take from that what you will, as this pretty much sums up the NRL in recent times. Ambiguous!

Whilst other sports are embracing and incorporating local networks with pre season matches and not warehousing games, the NRL and it's broadcasters' backwards attitude in this area is hurting the game, and hurting those who want to broadcast it and watch it.

Breaking it down, is the NRL or Telstra really going to suffer if a radio station calls a game in Orange between Newcastle and Canberra this February? If the governing body or official broadcasters aren't planning on using their resources to do just that, then I don't think so. In fact, it's a pure case of warehousing, as Mascord indicates. That is, a broadcaster owning rights to a particular product but not showing it and blocking other avenues of showing that product.

Do we want to expand the brand of the NRL and make it the best damn game possible? Then let's get on board and help promote this game not only at every level but also help out those that are trying to promote the game. For a game that already has had enough poor stories written about it in the media, let's not needlessly add another one to the list.

Stop the blackout and give the fans the access to The Greatest Game of All.