The NRL have announced that 2GB, the ABC and MMM have secured the NRL broadcast rights [1] through until the end of 2012 under much the same agreement as is currently in place.
2GB and the ABC will continue to broadcast Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon matches, with the ABC having access to a few Monday night matches for restricted broadcast, while MMM retain the exclusive commercial rights to Monday night matches.
The big change is that 2GB will be forced to pump the webstream of their NRL coverage through the NRL website and Telstra’s dodgy servers, bringing NRL webstreams in line with AFL webstreams which, it must be noted, have failed a number of times this year. There is no word on whether 2GB will be forced to switch their own webstream off during NRL matches, although it is probable that they will.
It’s not a loss for 2GB though, as having their webstream available directly from the NRL website, in the same manner as ABC and MMM broadcasts have already been available, will boost their audience, whilst for the NRL it makes their website a more authoritative “one stop shop” for NRL news and information.
Samuel
Comments Disabled To "NRL radio rights remain mostly unchanged through 2012"
#1 Comment By newtaste On September 24, 2009 @ 1:01 pm
Could 2GB have a link on their website to the NRL website?
#2 Comment By Samuel On September 24, 2009 @ 1:10 pm
Yes. The AFL broadcasters do that, many of them link directly to the AFL supplied stream. The only hassle with that is that the provided stream starts a bit before the game and ends shortly after the game, so stations end up having to put a message along the lines of “click here before 1:45, click there after 1:45, click here after 5pm”.