Rugby League Coverage

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Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Channel 9’s NRL ratings plummet as Fox Sports goes on the rise


Phil Rothfield Sports Editor-at-Large, The Daily Telegraph
31 minutes ago



SYDNEY rugby league fans have switched off Channel 9 TV veterans Ray Warren and Phil Gould.

The network’s ratings in Sydney plummeted an alarming 23 per cent for the opening game of the competition featuring premiers Cronulla against the Brisbane Broncos on Thursday night.

At the same time, pay television network Fox Sports picked up a five per cent increase in Sydney with the younger and more vibrant combination of Warren Smith, Greg Alexander and Kevvie Walters.

The corresponding game last year was the Parramatta Eels against the Broncos.

It was a disastrous start for Nine on the back of losing popular host Yvonne Sampson to Fox Sports during the off-season and having to introduce a relative unknown, James Bracey, as a new anchor.

Overall the total figure for Thursday night’s match was 1,126,164 viewers.

Worryingly that’s down 10.8 per cent on 2016.

Nine has a problem.

On free to air in the five metro city markets the channel lost 129,000 viewers nationally - representing a 19 per cent drop in the ratings.

However, Nine claims the one bright spot from last night’s coverage was the fact its national regional average audience increased from 205,000 viewers in 2016 to 349,000 in 2017.

Fox Sports had 219,000 last year but climbed to 230,000 on Thursday night.

FOX LEAGUE — THE JUICY DETAILS

SWITCHED on February 20, channel Fox Sports 502 will become Fox League, promising to give fans every game, every round live, on their very own channel that never switches off.

Yvonne Sampson will lead a new era for league coverage alongside Matty Johns.

Other new faces joining the network are recently retired Broncos great Justin Hodges, former halfback star Brett Finch and popular sports presenter Hannah Hollis.

Fans will see more of Corey Parker and Mick Ennis plus hear from new match-day caller Brenton Speed.

Sharing play-by-play commentary duties with Speed are Warren Smith and Andrew Voss.

Mal Meninga, Kevin Walters, Ben Ikin and Gorden Tallis will ensure hefty Queensland representation, while Lara Pitt, Megan Barnard, Tara Rushton and Jess Yates ensure a strong female presence.

The live on-field action starts earlier in the week this season, with the new Thursday night match hosted by Sampson, Johns and a bumper panel of experts weekly from 7pm EDT.

Then it’s a Friday double-header, with the new 6pm match only on Fox League, before a massive Super Saturday exclusive triple-header.

Fox League will be the only place to watch both Sunday matches live.

And there will be six new magazine shows to keep fans entertained.

New to the Fox League Lab is the Whizz-kid, whose razor sharp brain and homemade algorithms correctly predicted 80 per cent of last season’s results.

New additions to Fox Sports’ in-broadcast Augmented Reality, will see a new virtual tackle marker, keeping track of the tackle-count as well as showing subscribers exactly where it took place.

And shedding new light on what was a recurring point of contention last year, a new virtual 10-metre line will make it clearer for fans to know when refs are getting it right.

Fox Sports is wholly owned by News Corp Australia.


http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...e/news-story/1fee1fdbe4584f35195e91e567987e87
 
I have foxtel go which is absolutely brilliant. HD no lock in contract including sport and the drama pack(HBO shows) for $40 a month, can watch on any device where ever I am and switch off at anytime.

Haven't watched 9 and their bunch of clowns all year nor do I plan too unless out.
 
So glad I got Fox Sports. Coverage and even the analysis is much better than Nine.
 
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