I can only dream of such things in Melbourne. This year if a game was only at 7:30pm, I'd have to wait till at least 12:30pm to watch it.......I'm hoping the GEM (Ch9) will show more live games at a decent hour next year.
http://www.news.com.au/business/stephen-conroy-reveals-anti-siphoning-list-of-sports-for-free-to-air-broadcast/comments-e6frfm1i-1225961035446
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I think the plan is for 7TWO and GO! to start showing more sporting events too, but whether they'll be shown live interstate, I'm not sure.
Perhaps that's something that you may have to contact Conroy directly about, or ask around to see exactly what has changed.
Yeah, I've heard first-hand from many just how poor the coverage has been of the NRL for some time outside of NSW in particular, so they really need to address that and ASAP.
Basically, the anti-siphoning rules were instituted to do two things - protect free to air (FTA) TV broadcasters from pay TV competition, and to ensure that the public got to see significant sporting events on FTA TV. The rules and the list were written for the analog TV world - that is, around the assumption that there is one TV channel per broadcasting licence. When digital TV was introduced, which allows more than one TV channel per broadcasting licence, the anti-siphoning rules only related to the broadcaster's 'core' channel (that is, their main channel - for example chennl 7, channel 9 or channel 10).
Essentially what this change announced by Conroy does is to split the anti-siphoning list into two tiers (essentially divided on the basis of their perceived importance to the nation). My understanding is that while NRL Finals games are in Tier A and therefore must be shown (if they are to be shown at all, but that's another vagary of the rules) on the FTA network's 'core' channel (and therefore also be broadcast in analog, at least until the end of 2013), regular season games are in Tier B, and may be shown on networks digital-only channels (in the case of the NRL, that means either on Go! or Gem).
However, the operative term here is MAY. The channel(s) on which Nine chooses to broadcast regular season NRL, at what time they chose to do that, and into which markets/areas they choose to broadcast are all commercial decisions to be made by the Nine Network. Obviously the terms of their broadcasting rights deal with the NRL will have an impact, however, I suspect it wasn't written to account for this eventuality, and may in fact be silent on the matter of broadcasting on digital-only channels (but that is entirely a guess on my part).
Upshot is - Nine is likely to continue to put NRL matches on in Sydney on their core channel (that is, on Channel Nine). If they feel it is their business interest to do (and their broadcasting rights deals allows it) they can also choose to broadcast regular season NRL games on their digital-only channels (haven't looked into it but I doubt the rules are either/or). My understanding these are still national feeds, with the entire country getting exactly the same programming on the digital-only channels (a move to reduce broadcasting costs, and remove the need for program switching), so if that continued, it would actually mean that putting NRL games on Go! or Gem would give them national exposure. However, I am not sure whether Nine plans on showing either or both these channels on the satellite digital FTA service that's planned to service the most remote parts of the country (or closer in that can't get terrestrial TV reception), so remote Australians could still miss out.
However, the Nine Network is under NO OBLIGATION to do so. Although there is talk of introducing some kind of 'use or lose it' provision to the anti-siphoning rules, I suspect that Network Nine would fulfill that by boradcasting in NSW and Queensland as they already do. I doubt the rules wil oblige them to also broadcast in other areas on Gem or Go! As an aside - it's unclear how the proposed 'use or lose' provision (which aims to allow pay TV to take up sports on the list FTA TV networks are not broadcasting) would actually apply in practice, so we'll just have to wait and see on that one.
A further note - I also expect that at the end of 2013, the rules (may need to change again to account for the fact that there will be no analog TV at all (that it, all TV channels will be digital-only), but that depends how they wrote the Tier A and Tier B rules.
SMH's Roy Masters spoils anti-siphoning party "Fine print reveals Ch9 can continue to show NRL games on delay incl. after 12am in Vic."