Overseas - No Marketing of NRL

[eagle-rock08]

I just spent around three weeks in USA and Canada and found no match info nor roundups nor even a replay of an NRL game while there. Truely the only place I could get any info was on the net.

Ice Hockey was generally boring, curling almost made me hurl and I hate baseball and basketball.

Suggest NRL should be paying the yanks a motza to show a couple of games per week over there on ESPN or other sports channels. There is a possible 400,000,000 market in US and Canada. If we got 1% of that market it would be 4 million people watching rugby league.

If any of you guys found where to watch a game of league over there please tell me so when I go back next year I'll be able to watch it.

It was good by the way to be back and watch manly beat the warriors.

 

[Berkeley_Eagle]

maybe forward this post onto the nrl & suggest also they stop making people remove what they upload to youtube as to share our game

 

[Dan]

it isnt cheap getting into that market and for what reward.

That was part of the Super League idea and what they have tried to do with Super Rugby.

Super Rugby is a crap product, but man there are some dollars there

 

[WAMF]

Rusty tried to crack Souths in to the US market. No wonder it didn't work out.

 

[eagles2win]

Canada you can watch ESL on Setanta Sports(probably the closest to being able to watching a League game over there).
Don't know what happened but you use to be able to watch NRL over there.

 

[Masked Eagle]

And then we take the game to China!

 

[Blake]

Get in contact with The Australian Bar in NYC and find out how they are able to get live matches.
I saw the 09 GF there, but it was about 6 hrs delayed I think.
It was on a tv channel, and it had the rules scrolling along the bottom so the Yanks could figure out what they were watching!

 

[eagles2win]

A mate of mine watched the 4 Nations Final @ a pub in Whistler surrounded by Aussies and Kiwis but not sure how

 

[Rodo]

And I wouldn't be suprised if AFL was shown in the US. They are so much better at marketing themselves.

When I was in South Africa (a mad rugby country - they live and breath it) a year ago they were showing AFL matches but there was no NRL. I got chatting about sport with a few guys and they asked me all about AFL...I'm sure league could be big in SA if given half the chance but to me it seems like the people running the NRL do not want to promote the game outside of Australia.

 

[eagles2win]

And I wouldn't be suprised if AFL was shown in the US. They are so much better at marketing themselves.

When I was in South Africa (a mad rugby country - they live and breath it) a year ago they were showing AFL matches but there was no NRL. I got chatting about sport with a few guys and they asked me all about AFL...I'm sure league could be big in SA if given half the chance but to me it seems like the people running the NRL do not want to promote the game outside of Australia.

Know that the BARLA(British Amatuer Rugby League Association) Lions regularly tour to South Africa and also the Australian University team toured there recently.

So the baby steps are taking place

 

[Seaeagle63]

And I wouldn't be suprised if AFL was shown in the US. They are so much better at marketing themselves.

When I was in South Africa (a mad rugby country - they live and breath it) a year ago they were showing AFL matches but there was no NRL. I got chatting about sport with a few guys and they asked me all about AFL...I'm sure league could be big in SA if given half the chance but to me it seems like the people running the NRL do not want to promote the game outside of Australia.

Know that the BARLA(British Amatuer Rugby League Association) Lions regularly tour to South Africa and also the Australian University team toured there recently.

So the baby steps are taking place

We have a few BARLA Players currently playing for the Rockingham Sharks (WA). They are also playing a couple of tour matches in WA later in the year.

Some of the BARLA players are actually very good and wouldn't be amiss in the NRL.

 

[eagles2win]

And I wouldn't be suprised if AFL was shown in the US. They are so much better at marketing themselves.

When I was in South Africa (a mad rugby country - they live and breath it) a year ago they were showing AFL matches but there was no NRL. I got chatting about sport with a few guys and they asked me all about AFL...I'm sure league could be big in SA if given half the chance but to me it seems like the people running the NRL do not want to promote the game outside of Australia.

Know that the BARLA(British Amatuer Rugby League Association) Lions regularly tour to South Africa and also the Australian University team toured there recently.

So the baby steps are taking place

We have a few BARLA Players currently playing for the Rockingham Sharks (WA). They are also playing a couple of tour matches in WA later in the year.

Some of the BARLA players are actually very good and wouldn't be amiss in the NRL.

Tough bastards to

 

[DSM5]

I have great empathy Eagle Rock08. I venture to Canada and the US often during the year and last season I discovered only one NRL game per week on Sentana, as opposed to four AFL games. The NRL are just hopeless at promotion overseas. I just get my kids to tape and then fill in a week watching our victories on my return. Not good at all.

 

[conanu]

I was only thinking of the exact same thing the other day but I live in Ireland. I am coach a Rugby League club over here www.northdublineagles.com. But I am getting massively frustrated with the NRL lack of vision. Every five minutes on my face book page and on the net I am being sent annoying links to **** rugby matches like reds vs force to watch highlights on you tube the super 12 actually do highlights of every game and post them themselves. We (the NRL) on the otherhand tell you tube to remove ours because telstra the scumbags own the online rights and won't let anyone else use them. Every year I get heaps of Rugby Union mad Irish guys telling me where can I watch NRL and short of going to an aussie pub they have to spend €20 euros a month to get Setanta or pay $60 for an online subscription to watch it. Rugby League have no idea that there is a rest of the world. By the way I can watch gayfl on free to air in Ireland and also in America on espn. You tube and facebook is where the NRL needs to push and soon before Rugby gets bigger because people don't realize there is a better alternative that's 10,000 times more exciting.

 

[SwornEagle]

I've seen Rugby Union, ESL and AFL in pubs and bars in Toronto Canada in the last month on Sentana and ESPN... NO NRL!

NRL.com is the slowest loading website I've come across.

Bigpond and Foxsports don't stream ANY videos outside AUS or NZ..

Spike TV has aired the Finals Series the last couple of years, normally at 11am on a Sunday just before the NFL which is awesome, but no marketing.

My mate is the CEO of the Seattle Rugby League club in the AMNRL in USA, apparently Matty Vautin, Fatty's son is playing for Northern Raiders in the 2011 AMNRL Season.

 

[eagles2win]

I was only thinking of the exact same thing the other day but I live in Ireland. I am coach a Rugby League club over here www.northdublineagles.com. But I am getting massively frustrated with the NRL lack of vision. Every five minutes on my face book page and on the net I am being sent annoying links to s**t rugby matches like reds vs force to watch highlights on you tube the super 12 actually do highlights of every game and post them themselves. We (the NRL) on the otherhand tell you tube to remove ours because telstra the scumbags own the online rights and won't let anyone else use them. Every year I get heaps of Rugby Union mad Irish guys telling me where can I watch NRL and short of going to an aussie pub they have to spend €20 euros a month to get Setanta or pay $60 for an online subscription to watch it. Rugby League have no idea that there is a rest of the world. By the way I can watch gayfl on free to air in Ireland and also in America on espn. You tube and facebook is where the NRL needs to push and soon before Rugby gets bigger because people don't realize there is a better alternative that's 10,000 times more exciting.

Just wondering Conanu how can I buy a jersey from your club?

 

[Masked Eagle]

Its much easier to market AFL to foreign markets than it is Rugby League. As has been mention there is plenty of union, and lets face it, its played in a more organised fashion in other countries and some of the stations that broadcast foreign sport really wouldn't differentiate much between the two Rugby codes but because AFL is so much different they would be more likely to show it.

 

[conanu]

I was only thinking of the exact same thing the other day but I live in Ireland. I am coach a Rugby League club over here www.northdublineagles.com. But I am getting massively frustrated with the NRL lack of vision. Every five minutes on my face book page and on the net I am being sent annoying links to s**t rugby matches like reds vs force to watch highlights on you tube the super 12 actually do highlights of every game and post them themselves. We (the NRL) on the otherhand tell you tube to remove ours because telstra the scumbags own the online rights and won't let anyone else use them. Every year I get heaps of Rugby Union mad Irish guys telling me where can I watch NRL and short of going to an aussie pub they have to spend €20 euros a month to get Setanta or pay $60 for an online subscription to watch it. Rugby League have no idea that there is a rest of the world. By the way I can watch gayfl on free to air in Ireland and also in America on espn. You tube and facebook is where the NRL needs to push and soon before Rugby gets bigger because people don't realize there is a better alternative that's 10,000 times more exciting.

Just wondering Conanu how can I buy a jersey from your club?

yeah i should be able to organise something. Sign up and contact me on the clubs website and i will do my best to get you one.

Cheers

Conanu

 

[ayjay007]

I'll be looking for somewhere in LA,Texas and NY for NRL.I'll be over there for the last 3 weeks of the finals this year,and will want to see Manly winning the GF.

 

[conanu]

Here is what I sent to the NRL.


Dear Mr Gallop,
 
I am writing this letter to you to hopefully give you some valuable information that will help your team when negotiating the next Online Media and Broadcast Rights partnership.
My name is Conan Uphill and I currently reside in County Laois in Ireland. I am originally from Canberra and moved over to Ireland in 2003. I was the former Administration Director with Rugby League Ireland (RLI). Basically i wanted to let you know that unfortunately we are losing the battle with Rugby Union for hearts and minds in the UK Europe and the Americas when it comes to Rugby League even though we have a far superior product.
 
Our first major problem is that the SUPER 14 competition has stolen Rugby Leagues SUPERLEAGUE (VISION) to take its game to the world. I am conststantly bombarded with links on Facebook and email to highlights packages to mediocre Super 14 Rugby Union matches. These are usually sent by young players and fans from Ireland and the world that are wanting to tell their friends about this so called fantastic Southern Hemisphere Rugby that to be honest doesn't hold a candle to even the most mediocre of NRL matches. Unfortunately these same Rugby Union fans have never been exposed to the NRL due to our strict online content policy that prohibits the fans posting NRL highlights on youtube and its contemporaries. This needs to be rectified in order for Rugby League and the NRL to grow its share of the market overseas and inturn allow our clubs to fight harder when it comes to negotiating sponsorship deals as it will cause a massive increase in Sponsor exposure and this would help struggling clubs like Manly who cant attract a Major Sponsor. 
 
The present Online media content Rights Deal is working against us (The NRL) at present. It is the equivalent of a business/shop putting a gagging order on its customers from telling any other potential customers how great the shops products are. Large Organisations and Companies pay marketing and Advertising gurus millions to try and create viral advertisments that are shown all over the internet and we unfortunatley shoot ourselves in the foot by restricting content. A perfect example of the NRL's potential for huge success is the current NRL Bon Jovi ad campagn which was posted on Youtube officially by the NRL and recieved around 4 million hits within 1 day!!.
 
As far as i am aware there is an existing contract in place with the NRL and Telstra for Telstra to have exclusive rights to the display of NRL content on the internet, and as far as i am aware this covers internet content worldwide. The massive problem with that is that Telstra is unfortunately not a worldwide company and therefore it cannot offer it wonderful NRL online content outside Australia as the rest of the world cannot become Bigpond customers and even if they could sign up they would not because they would not know what the NRL or Telstra is.
 
Our Achilles heel is that we prohibit the posting of content by fans on video media sites such as YouTube and we (The NRL) dont produce anywhere near enough official free online content. I can understand that the current agreement is in place and Telstra have every right to restrict this as they paid for the rights and i also understand that at the time Internet and viral advertising was probably not as popular and also hindsight is a wonderful thing.
I believe going forward that mediums such as Facebook and Youtube are going to be what makes or breaks our sports popularity.
 
The reason I say this is that for an example Ireland has a huge Rugby Union following and thousands of registered players as does the UK, however all these players young and old have barely a seen an NRL match if at all. I have coached and played over here for the past 8 years and every year I have to convince players to check out an NRL match. This is simple for me to do personally as i am happy to pay for Setanta Sports and also to NRL LIVETV for my subscriptions but i am a Rugby League and NRL supporter so i do not mind paying for this service bacause i can see the value because i know the product. However for a young lad/student who cannot afford to pay for a subscription to these sites or channel it is near on impossible to follow the NRL, whereas that same person could get repeats of AFL on free to air in Ireland. Setanta goes out to the UPC digital cable TV network in Ireland which goes out to around 60% of households however Setanta have 2 Channels one of which (Setanta Ireland) is free to UPC customers the other Channel (Setanta Sports 1) is a subsrciption only channel which cost around €20 per month and of course this is the Channel that plays NRL matches. I believe it would be wise in future negotiations  if we give some of the week old non live replays to free to air channels in Ireland,UK and the Americas so they could broadcast the games a week later and late at night at the very least. 
 
I also feel we need to negotiate into the next deal that the custodians of the online rights only have exclusivity of Online content for a period of a week following the recording of the footage. Then after the following weeks round is played the NRL could allow the content to be used on websites such as youtube etc. This would allow the custodians of the rights excellent exposure in that week and then when the footage becomes stale it will be re-hashed by fans and transmitted to the world. This would not de-value the Broadcast rights either as it would expose millions of potential fans to the fantastic product and also convince them that it is worth paying for the subscriptions to be able to see it live and as it happens.
 
I appreciate the great work you and your team have done to get the NRL back on top in Australia. Now is the time to bring Rugby League to the world and you have the power and ability to change our path and make Rugby League outside of Australia thrive.
 
Yours in Rugby League
 
Conan Uphill