Hands up—who knew the ANZ Premiership starts tomorrow?
This is netball.
I’m guessing not many hands went up, which is a worry. It’s somewhat forgivable, given the state of netball’s head office at the moment. It doesn’t have a permanent CEO, and the chair and several board members have recently resigned. So you can understand why things are a bit of a mess and the communication strategy isn’t quite working.
But it’s also not forgivable, because this is a pivotal season for netball. This season has to work. It probably won’t, but it at least needs the best possible chance, because professional netball in this country is fighting for its life.
There’s no broadcast deal this year. Sky pulled out at the end of last year, so netball has had to pay TVNZ just to get it on TV2. That means there’s no money coming in from Sky, and players have had to take a 20% pay cut—those who are still here, anyway.
Nine Silver Ferns have already moved to the Australian competition, where they earn double what they do here. And that will keep happening unless the local competition can start generating revenue again and paying players properly.
So you can see how important it is that this season gets things moving in the right direction.
It seems netball bosses are pinning their hopes on free-to-air TV being the game changer. Before, you had to pay to watch; now you can watch for free on TV2. The idea is you might fall in love with it again, start watching regularly, maybe even go to matches—and before long, netball secures another deal with Sky.
But will you watch it again? Will you love it again when nine Silver Ferns are already gone, and the competition isn’t as strong as it was last year—when you probably weren’t watching anyway?
Probably not.
And the fact that neither of us even knew the season was about to start is probably not a good omen.
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Episode Transcript
Hands up. Who knew that the A and Z Premiership
starts tomorrow? This is the Netbule I'm going to bet
not a lot of hands went up, which is a
worry because I guess it's forgivable given the state of
Netbull's head office at the moment. It doesn't have a
permanent CEO, the chair and a bunch of board members
have resigned just recently, so you can forgive them for
being a bit too much of a hot mess there
(00:21):
to really be able to get the communications strategy working properly.
But it's also not forgivable because this is a really
pivotal season for netball. This season has to work. It's
not going to work, but it has to at least
have the best chance of working because professional netball in
this country is fighting for its life. It has no
broadcast deal this year. Sky pulled the deal at the
end of last year, so Netbules now had to pay
(00:42):
someone being TV and Z, just so TV and Z
will put it on TV two, which means there's no
money coming in from Sky, which means the players have
had to take a twenty percent pay cut, and that's
the players who are left playing in the competition. Nine
silver Ferns have already gone over to the Aussie competition
where they earned double what they earn here, and that
will continue to happen unless the local competition can start
earning money again to pay them properly. So you can
(01:04):
see how important it is that this season starts to
get things going in the right direction. I feel like
the netball bosses are pinning all their hopes on free
to AIRTV being the game changer. Unlike before when you
have to pay to watch the netball, now you can
watch the Netbule for free. You just go to TV two.
So you might start loving it again. You might start
watching it again, you might start coming out to the
matches and before you know it, hate Netble's got another
(01:26):
deal from SkyTV. But will you watch it again? Will
you love it again? When nine of the silver Ferns
are already out of the competition, meaning it's just not
as good as it was last year when you already
didn't watch it, Probably not, I would say, And the
fact that you and I didn't even know that this
thing was about to start is probably not a good omen.
For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive listen live to
(01:46):
News Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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